Advent Visions

December 8:  Lights

December is a season of lights.   We are right now in the midst of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which features the lighting of candles to remember a dark day centuries ago when the last remnant of oil for the temple lamps kept the lights burning against all odds for eight days.   And Christians light candles on an Advent wreath to acknowledge "the light of the world," which will never be overcome.   And our culture loves its holiday lights.   They twinkle up and down every street, on Christmas trees, outlining roofs and porches,  configured in the shape of reindeer and snowmen.  Neighbors often try to outdo each other with the extravagance of their displays.  Our nearby village of Ivoryton is bright with over 500,000 lights in great hoops and swags, on trees and buildings, in every color of the rainbow.  I am sure you can see Ivoryton from outer space!  And tonight in our small town of Deep River, folks of all ages will be out on Main Street for our annual Holiday Stroll, which this year features a Light Parade:  vehicles decorated with wonderful lights in procession through the town center!

In this darkest time of the year Christmas lights are a welcome sign of hope and cheer.  But even a single light can make a difference when it's dark.   This week we marked the passing of former President George H.W. Bush, who believed that ordinary citizens, volunteering with passion and action, could be like "a thousand points of light" in the world.    I think it is so.   Yesterday, while Christmas shopping with my wife, I witnessed a few of those "points of light."   A  clerk raced out of a store to deliver a purchase to a customer who had inadvertently left it behind.   A waitress in a restaurant went out of her way to welcome us and recommend menu items she thought we might enjoy
.   A parking lot attendant, cold and weary, encouraged us to drive safely and to enjoy the love of the holiday.  A woman behind a counter smiled patiently and helped me when I managed to knock over two displays at the same time.  A stranger offered to take a picture of us in front of a festive display.  These gestures may not change the world.  But I'll take every point of light I can get!

LIGHT

A candle in the window
is light enough
to chase the shadows.
The year bends
in its winter arc,
where night and cold reign.
Yet we set lights burning
to claim this domain
for Another,
to be a sign that love
shines among us,
and sometimes shines in us,
where the brightness
is love itself.