Have you noticed? More and more radio stations are playing non-stop Christmas music. How many times a day do you hear “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas?” I love that song, but after reflecting on yesterday’s memorial service for those slain officers, I’m thinking the more appropriate song would be “I’ll Have a Blue Christmas Without You.” So, where were you when you heard about the four cops in suburban Tacoma who were gunned down while having coffee in a Lakewood coffee shop before starting their shift? I was in Chicago about to step into the pulpit as a guest preacher at my daughter’s church when my iphone buzzed. It was a text message from CNN announcing the tragedy.
After I returned home, I heard Ken Schram on KOMO talking about the horrific story and the indescribable sorrow that the victims’ families will face this Christmas season. During the course of his comments, he read an e-mail from a local police dispatcher suggesting that we put a blue light in the front windows of our homes.
It’s a practical way during the holidays to honor the memories of these fallen officers (along with the nearly 200 other cops nationwide who have been killed in the line of duty so far this year). It’s a simple way of conveying to the survivors that we are grieving with them. Pardon the pun, but I thought the blue light idea was a brilliant one. I sat down to pen a simple poem in hopes that it might possibly be forwarded on the Internet to promote this idea for the Christmas season.
Put a Blue Light in Your Window
Put a blue light in your window for those officers in blue
who were gunned down having coffee. It’s the least that we can do.
It’s a way of showing honor to their families who are left
who must face the coming season feeling lost, alone, bereft.
On these silent nights of sorrow as we take time to be still
that blue light in the window will recall those who were killed.
Each, with uniform allegiance to the force they proudly served,
died committed to our safety and the laws they helped preserve.
So … to the green and red of Christmas let us add the color blue. It will say to those now fallen, we will never forget you.
Once written, I read the poem to our local Rotary Club. I sent it to Ed Holmes, our Mercer Island chief of police, who forwarded it to his entire staff. I also sent it to my friend, Gregg Hersholt, who is the morning news anchor for KIRO radio. He read it on air. As a result, KIRO has decided to initiate Operation Blue Light as a communitywide promotion.
Perhaps you would like to forward this idea to members of your extended family, neighbors and colleagues at work. In addition, it might be something your church or synagogue would get on board with. It could be a quiet way of proving the truth of that old Swedish proverb that says, “A shared sorrow is half a sorrow.” It’s what Saint Paul had in mind when he suggested that we “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).
Oh, by the way, I subsequently discovered that the “blue light in the window” idea did not originate with the Seattle-area police dispatcher. It’s an idea that goes back some 20 years. If you’re interested, check out this Web site: www.nleomf.com/media/press/bluelight08.htm.
Greg Asimakoupoulos is the pastor of the Mercer Island Covenant Church and can be reached at AwesomeRev@aol.com.
