“You are the light of the world.  A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Matthew 5:14-15)

As some of you know, my mom, Debbie, is visiting and I’m taking vacation days tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday to spend quality time with her.  Thus, this is a rare “Wednesday Thought”!  Now, my mom came just to visit because the truth is that we only see each other a few times a year.  As her father (my grandfather) was in the Army for his career, she grew up on Army bases all over the world and loves to travel, thankfully.  Meanwhile my dad is back in Ohio holding down the fort and taking care of their dog, Buddy.  But my mom also came to bring Neill and I some items from my parents’ old house.  My parents moved in 2020, selling my childhood home and moving across town in Wadsworth, Ohio.  There were some items they no longer needed in their new home, including some area rugs that now live in the parsonage.  Hooray!

Though there was one household item that I’ve (admittedly annoyingly) inquired about over the years and that is a certain crystal lamp that once shed light in our living room.  My parents bought the lamp at a family furniture store (Stauffer’s Furniture) in Sharon Center, Ohio many years ago.  That “mom and pop” store closed some time ago.  The lamp was imported from Germany and is made out of German crystal.  It’s “heavier than sin” as my mom always says. 

And I just love this lamp! 
Maybe because some of our ancestors came from Germany and it makes me happy to think of some talented German worker making this lamp. 
Maybe because it reminds me of time spent in the living room in my childhood reading by the light of this lamp.  It was a quiet room in our house where I could read in peace, sometimes in amiable silence as my dad read his book too. 
Maybe it’s simply a “piece of home”. 

And while I try not to be materialistic, there are certain objects that mean something to us. 
This crystal lamp from my childhood home just happens to be one of those items that “sparks joy” for me. 

So the time had come for my parents to gift the lamp (unbeknownst to me)! 
For her part, my mom said that you reach a point in your life when you want to see your children enjoy items like this in their own homes.  (I think my dad is a little surly that his reading lamp now lives in Connecticut, but he will forgive both of us in time). 
It was a big surprise to unload the car and find the lamp in there, let me tell you. 
Now it can “give light to all in the house” in our house/the parsonage in Colchester. 
So my “thought” this week is an expression of gratitude to my parents (thanks, mom and dad!) and for those special items that connect us to “home,” no matter where life has taken us.  

Love,
Pastor Lauren 

Photo by Rev. Lauren L. Ostout.

Wednesday Thoughts 3/8/23