candles

Christmas is on my mind. One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is going to the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. I just love the atmosphere, the church has low lighting, the Christmas tree glows, we sing many of my favorite songs and of course there is the candle lighting and singing of “Silent Night”.

It is so uplifting as Pastor lights his candle and then proceeds down the aisle to light other candles which then light the candle next to them and soon the church is glowing and voices are blending in song; beautiful!

I also have a couple funny memories of these services. One year, my then pre-teen daughter declared she knew that the reason we held the candle lighting was that when the hot wax dripped down and burnt the fingers it should remind us of the fires of hell. That made me laugh. There was another year when we were singing, I noticed an extra bright flame coming from Don’s end of the pew; he had lit his program on fire and was eagerly attempting to blow it out. That made me laugh too.

It is inspiring to me that in the dimly lit church how one candle can shed so much light. Also, how much that light grows as the flame is shared. That, my friends, is what I think the Christian life should look like. Just like the song says, “This little gospel light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” Let us pray each day that our lights will shine brightly to light the dimly lit places of the earth. God bless us; everyone.
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