Light a Candle
In these northern climes, in the dead of winter, we take the little hopeful glimmers as we find them.
I was sitting in chair getting my haircut when the stylist got excited all of a sudden. “Did you notice? The light is sticking around a little longer each day?!”
The next day, I was having coffee with a colleague and she channeled my stylist’s excitement. “I can walk a little later each day without having to walk in the dark.”
In the long days of winter, we long for the light and for the long slow awakening from the winter that the longer days signal.
The extra measure of light is a daily reminder of the sign of light in the Christian tradition. We begin our services by lighting candles. I light a candle in my study for my time of prayer and devotion. We hold candles aloft in the Christmas Eve service, bathing the sanctuary in soft light. At the Easter Vigil, we light a new Paschal candle and carry it into the darkened sanctuary to begin the Resurrection celebration.
John’s gospel begins by naming the Cosmic Christ as the light coming into the world to bring us the life of God. (John 1:4-5). In the same gospel, one of Jesus’ seven signs is to bring sight to a man born; in the prelude to the healing, he proclaimed, “I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5). Centuries earlier, the prophet gave the promise of the great light as he encouraged the exiles returning to Jerusalem, “Arise, shine, for your light has come. and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1). And in a verse that leads into one of my favorite paragraphs in Paul’s letters, the apostle writes, “For it is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
So, maybe today, in the darkness of the early morning, or in the shadows of the late evening, even as you long for longer and warmer days, light a candle and be reminded that the love and life of God has come to our hearts, our lives, our churches, our communities, and our world in the person of Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
I was sitting in chair getting my haircut when the stylist got excited all of a sudden. “Did you notice? The light is sticking around a little longer each day?!”
The next day, I was having coffee with a colleague and she channeled my stylist’s excitement. “I can walk a little later each day without having to walk in the dark.”
In the long days of winter, we long for the light and for the long slow awakening from the winter that the longer days signal.
The extra measure of light is a daily reminder of the sign of light in the Christian tradition. We begin our services by lighting candles. I light a candle in my study for my time of prayer and devotion. We hold candles aloft in the Christmas Eve service, bathing the sanctuary in soft light. At the Easter Vigil, we light a new Paschal candle and carry it into the darkened sanctuary to begin the Resurrection celebration.
John’s gospel begins by naming the Cosmic Christ as the light coming into the world to bring us the life of God. (John 1:4-5). In the same gospel, one of Jesus’ seven signs is to bring sight to a man born; in the prelude to the healing, he proclaimed, “I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5). Centuries earlier, the prophet gave the promise of the great light as he encouraged the exiles returning to Jerusalem, “Arise, shine, for your light has come. and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1). And in a verse that leads into one of my favorite paragraphs in Paul’s letters, the apostle writes, “For it is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
So, maybe today, in the darkness of the early morning, or in the shadows of the late evening, even as you long for longer and warmer days, light a candle and be reminded that the love and life of God has come to our hearts, our lives, our churches, our communities, and our world in the person of Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
Pastor Jim Honig
Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran
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