Solar-Powered Christmas Lights
by Oliver Carlos
I’m so amazed with the solar-powered Christmas lights I bought. I wrapped it around a 20-foot cypress tree in front of our house. When darkness bites in at dusk, the lights automatically come alive making the cypress look like a giant Christmas tree! Our front yard is such a lovely and awesome sight.
The lights would continue to blink until the wee hours of the morning, when the stored solar power gets totally drained. Then, when the sun comes out, the solar cells would absorb a new supply of solar energy all day long, up to sunset. The solar panel is just small, it’s just half the size of an ATM card. But it’s good enough to make the lights dance all night long. Afterwards, the same cycle would begin anew in the morning. The best thing about this is that the lights don’t add to our electric bill.
But on some evenings, the Christmas lights won’t light up. These were times when the morning sky was heavily cloudy. When those gloomy overcast days come our way, the evenings would likewise be gloomy. Sometimes, such period would stretch for a handful of days. Thus, my solar-powered Christmas lights also serve as a measuring instrument or “barometer” for the amount of sunlight that falls on us each day.
In the Book of Acts, Paul and his travelling companions experienced a 14-day period wherein they didn’t see much sunlight. In fact, Luke, the author of that book, described the evenings as starless nights. They were actually in the middle of a storm as they were crossing the Mediterranean Sea. At the height of the storm, everybody on the ship was panicking. They even started throwing their precious cargo overboard. Luke wrote in Acts 27:20 (NIV):
“When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.”
Then one night, Paul, after receiving a word from the Lord, stood up and addressed everybody on board. He encouraged them by saying that God assured him that although the ship would be wrecked, no one would die. He said in verse 25:
“So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.”
This word from God became a beacon of hope for the hopeless travelers. Everything happened as Paul told them. Everybody was able to find safe shelter in the island of Malta.
Are you in the midst of a gloomy, sunless and starless part of your life? Are you in the middle of a life storm? Seek a word from the Lord. Open up your Bible, listen to his voice. That will keep you afloat.
