You can click on the pictures on this page for a
larger version.

Our Remember Jesus sign was created
by Mark Obermiller from Indiana. For a number of years, Mark had a very
large Christmas display. You can see some pictures and information at his Computer
Christmas Lights website. For his final display in 2002, he had nearly
150,000 lights, all synchronized to music via computer control and over 200
computer controlled circuits. More importantly, he treated his display as
a Christmas Lighting Ministry -- he used his lights as a ministry tool to remind
others of the reason for Christmas, and the saving power of Jesus
Christ.
Although we never got to see the
display in person, we were privileged to be able to enjoy several years of the
display via video. Mark's lights and ministry inspired our display in a
lot of different ways. First of all, the ministry
aspect was something we
had been doing in low-key ways for years, but seeing it done on such a grand
scale kind of helped prove that we weren't crazy! In the past friends from
church would kind of look at us funny when we said that we treated our lights
were a "ministry", after seeing Mark's display, and some of the
testimonials on his website, I was able to show them that it wasn't so crazy
after all. Also, the way Mark computer-controlled his lights matched our
style more than other computer-controlled displays we'd seen in the past.
Lots of folks like to run only a few lights at once and have the computer cycle
through them, emphasizing on thematic aspects (e.g. turning on Santa when
mentioned in the music). Mark did these sorts of thematic things, but he
also had thousands of lights on at any given time. We just happen to like
the look of lots and lots of Christmas lights, and it was nice to see this could
still be accomplished with computer control.
The
Remember Jesus sign was prominently displayed in Mark's Christmas display.
The picture to the left shows the sign as it appeared in his display --
high on the roof, with a large cross incorporated into it. This sign
always struck a chord with us -- it was somewhat original and a slogan not found
in most Christmas displays, yet it sort of summarized in two words why we
decorated -- we wanted viewers of our display to Remember Jesus during the
Christmas season (for more on why we decorate, see this page).
Unfortunately due to some family situations, Mark
decided not to do a display in 2003, and sold off most of the display.
When we inquired about the Remember Jesus sign, Mark, who was familiar with our
display and our reasons for decorating, graciously decided to donate the display
to our own lighting ministry. We drove to Indiana as part of our vacation
in September 2003 to pick up the sign, and added it to our display that
year. In our display, it stretches along
the side of our property, near our Peanuts Nativity
Pageant. It's a very large sign, and Mark had just reworked it
with rope light for the 2002 season so it looks great. We animate the sign
with computer control, synchronized to music along
with the rest of our computer-controlled lights.
Incidentally, the lighted candy
canes lining our driveway, and one of the strobe lights formerly in our Mega
Tree display also originated from Mark's display.
Hopefully someday Mark will build
up a new display, and we'll be able to see it in person. But for now, his
display lives on at the displays of many other lighting enthusiasts, and a small
part of it lives on here at Christmas at the Fischer's Place.

This page was last updated on Monday, December 21, 2009