The Light Under the Door

I must admit to feeling a little bit blue as I write this on an early December evening. Last weekend, all of my sisters and I, and our parents and aunt and uncle, and all but one of our children, were together under the same roof.  

For one day.  

The five of us girls who grew up "Christmasing" in the same house together with our parents are rarely all together anymore. And today we're all back in our own homes, some of us hours away from one another.

I love to watch a certain Christmas episode of the old TV show, The Wonder Years. In this particular episode, "Kevin Arnold" remembers the Christmas parties his parents hosted every year for the people in their neighborhood. At the end of the show, he pictures himself as a very young child, sent to bed while his parents continue to entertain their guests. He is enveloped in the darkness of night, but is able to see the "dancing light" under his door, as people walk back and forth. He can hear the general chattering of his parents' friends but he listens for the distinct sound of his father's laugh. And then he hears it, and all is well. 

"But I still think about those parties. What they stood for. A time before TV dinners and two-car families. And grass was green and we were young... and those nights when I'd lie awake in my bed... watching the light dance under my door. And listening... for my father's laugh."  --The grown-up "Kevin Arnold."  :)

Every time I see that episode, I vividly remember what it was like to be in my parents' house, sent to bed because I was too little to stay up until all the "company" went home. But I could see the light "dancing" under my door and hear my parents' voices above all the others. Being the nostalgic person I am, those are wonderful memories. Bittersweet, I guess. 

Sometimes I long for us all to be together again, safe from harm, with two people older and wiser than I to make decisions for me and protect and guide me, yet I'm grateful for my present life just the way it is. Now it's my husband's and my turn to play those roles of protectors, providers and teachers. Sometimes that's scary. But I know that my husband and I have the same Guide that my parents had, and He is the same today and tomorrow as He was in my yesterdays. THAT's why I'm only a *little bit* blue today. Mostly I'm just enjoying this season of celebrating my Savior's birth!

Lainey Preston  is a teenager who LOVES Christmas!  Check out her Christmas adventures in the "Lainey's Bridge" series, available HERE at a spectacular holiday sale price!  :)