The One Blue Light

We don't put lights in the windows here. Well, we don't put white lights in our windows here. In fact, we only put one light in one window...one blue light.

It's not for the military, and it's not for the King of Kings.  It's for all the police officers who will not celebrate Christmas this year. Not because they are working, or are overseas, but because they gave the ultimate sacrifice and died this year.

There are lots of YouTube videos of police officers working. Many of those videos don't show the good that they do. The videos show part of what I know must have been a long interaction and the policeman may not come across as the good guy.

But they are the good guys. They run into buildings, not know what is waiting for them. They enter homes where they know abuse is taking place.  They invade homes where drugs are being made and used. They stop cars of those who are drunk and again have no idea where that will end up.  Where others run away, they run in.  They show up at car accidents and find out the teens in the car are not going to graduate and they have to tell the parents.  They protect the innocent, help the helpless, and many times, they are not even thanked, but instead sworn at and attacked.
They will live the rest of their lives with the faces of those teens in their heads. They choose to keep them there. It motivates them to work harder to slow down the teen, get the drunk off the road, protect the spouse from abuse and get those drugs off the street.

Many will never go home. The dream of a long life ends in a heart beat. Another police officer will go to the family to tell them, that their police officer will not come home anymore.

So we put one blue light in the windowto honor their memory and to remind us that many police officers will not be home to see their children open gifts. They will not sing Christmas songs, or go to Midnight Worship or grow old. But, because of their sacrifice, others will.

I am not in any way trying to minimize what happened to the families in Connecticut last week. Those parents of those babies will hurt and cry and forever be changed, as will their entire community. They will never understand the evil that took the lives of those babies and those teachers who tried to protect them, shielding them with their very own bodies. Everyone lost that day. Everyone will suffer for a very long time.

I just wanted to remember the police officers who walked in those classrooms and who will forever have the photos of those babies in their minds and the photos of those teachers and administrators in their minds. All those precious bodies, all that blood, all that mess will forever change them.  No, no police officers died that day, but they ran into the building, knowing that they could.....

So we put out our one blue candle......

Hug your family.