FOR CHURCHES
Leave the Light On Night
Wednesday, November 25, the night before Thanksgiving
Most churches have a few people who come alone at Thanksgiving because someone they love has stopped coming. A grown son. A daughter. A grandchild. They're often the most faithful people in the room, and they carry it quietly.
I wrote a short book for them called I Left the Light On. It's about people in Scripture who waited for someone: the father watching the road, Hannah with a little robe every year, David and the son he couldn't face. It's free to read, with nothing to buy and nothing to sign up for. It doesn't blame the one who left, and it doesn't blame the church.
On Wednesday, November 25, the night before Thanksgiving, I'm asking people to do one small thing: leave the porch light on for someone they're waiting for, and send the book to one other person who's waiting too.
If it would help, everything below is yours to use: a half-page bulletin insert, a 60-second announcement, and a short reading from Luke 15. Change anything. No credit needed, and nothing comes back to me.
Steve Fultz
The bulletin insert
Half a page, two to a sheet. It prints well in black and white or color. The QR code opens the book.
The whole book, to print
For the families in your church who'd rather hold it than read it on a phone: the whole book in large type on letter paper, free to print as many copies as you like.
The announcement
About 60 seconds. For the end of the service, before the closing prayer. Pauses are marked.
Before we pray, one more thing.
(Pause.)
Some of us will set a table this Thanksgiving with a chair that stays empty. A son who stopped calling. A daughter who walked away from the faith she was raised in. A grandchild we haven't seen in years.
(Pause.)
Jesus told a story about a father like that. His son was still a long way down the road when the father saw him. He saw him because he was looking.
So here's something small. On Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving, leave your porch light on. You don't have to tell anyone why.
And if someone else came to mind, someone who's waiting too, there's a free book in your bulletin this morning. It's called I Left the Light On. Nothing to buy, nothing to sign up for. Send it to one person.
(Pause.)
Now we'll pray for everyone in this room who is keeping a light on this week.
The reading
About a minute and a half, from the book's opening. Good for a prayer time or a small group. Luke 15:20, Berean Standard Bible
The son was still a long way down the road when his father saw him.
That's how Luke tells it. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. The boy hadn't reached the gate. He hadn't said a word. He was a shape on the road, far enough off that most people wouldn't have known who it was.
His father knew.
You don't see someone in the distance unless you're looking down that road.
· · ·
Then he ran.
He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. Before the speech. The son had it ready, and he started in on it. Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. He'd planned one more line, the one about being taken on as a hired hand. He never got to it. The father had already turned to the servants.
Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. A ring for his finger, sandals for his feet, the fattened calf. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!
He didn't answer the speech. He answered the son.
The whole book is free at ileftthelighton.com. Use any of this, change anything, no permission needed.