Light and Darkness

During this dark December time of year we do what we can to light up our life. We decorate with a few hundred or thousand extra lights, inside and out. We actually start lighting some of our decorative candles. Glowing candles and warm fires cheer us or at least help us to feel peaceful and cozy in spite of the dreary weather and short days.

Poinsettia candles too pretty to burn

Our churches sponsor candlelight services. We reference darkness and light there, from scripture and in our hymnody. We sing of Jesus Christ as the Light of the World, coming into this dark world of sin. We sing angel alleluias and raise our lighted candles high in anticipation of the glorious light that is promised, piercing through to the blackness of our earth and penetrating deep into the dark sin in our hearts.

The massacre of young school children last week in Connecticut is a reminder of how darkly troubled this world really is. Christ has come to offer light and salvation, but pockets of deep darkness and evil still remain.

Today was very dark. We are approaching the shortest day of the year.

Christmas cheer seems extremely hard to manufacture these days, but we try, going through the motions. Today I started the gift wrapping process, having collected a pile of the prettiest paper I could find--mostly gold in color. The husband recently reminded me that I own some gold (stocks). Good for me. At least one of the wise men reportedly brought a gift of gold to the baby Jesus.

But all that glittering gold--reflecting in the golden glow of all those extra strings of lights and flickering candles--contrast starkly with the dreary cold of December's short days and the despair we see in the world and in our own hearts--if we look deep enough.

We (mostly me) like wine here and I have been stocking up a little for the holidays. Instead of stocking gifts, I have stocked the stockings with wine!  I think I will need to tap into that artificial cheer this Christmas! The Florida contingent, especially, will need some warming up, arriving on the eve of the winter solstice. I have selected a wine for each person (i.e., one is Middle Sister merlot for guess who) in the family and I hope they share a sip or two with me! Even if some of the wine turns out to be in bad taste, I hope it brings a little light to our faces as we celebrate together this Christmas.

Getting back to the dark side, I have noticed that even those who use the word evil very sparingly are willing to call the recent shooting of little children in Connecticut evil. How else can you describe or explain something so horrific? Some are comparing it to the holocaust...something about shooting innocent children conjures up other memories of the worst of the worst. Some have called it Gehenna (hell) come to earth.

Yesterday the President read aloud the names of the slain. Today I saw their photos for the first time, splashed across my big screen television--all innocent and beautiful. The Voice did an opening tribute, holding a name card for each of the fallen.

The shooter's mother probably loved her child, too. I hope she is at peace in her death, even though we really want to blame her, too.

Today the mailman brought us a very special package--the transferred Beta tapes-to-dvd's of old family movies from 1983 and beyond--one from as late as 1996 (who besides us still had Beta then?). Since they were on a Beta format we had not been able to view them for years, since our equipment failed. So the husband sent them off to Colorado to be made into dvds. Tonight we viewed a few of them for the first time. The very earliest family movie is of our daughters at 1 and 4 years of age, in 1983--our precious-cute-darling-girls, who are now all grown up and independent and not always so sweet anymore.

The movies reminded me once again of the children and their families in Connecticut. Trying to think of the horror of those innocent little children being shot in cold blood is really beyond anything I can imagine--and I don't even want to think about it anymore. What is sadder than the loss of a sweet child in such a savage and violent way? Nothing!

It is not hard to imagine that we still need Light in this world. May many turn to follow the Light of the Christ-child, that real Star of Bethlehem, and recognize Him as the only true source of light and their only hope for redemption from the dark and evil of sin in this world--and in their hearts.

This past week we have seen the face of evil...

Sunday at my church I heard about the face of God...in that Mark Lowry song, Mary, Did You Know, which includes the lines, shocking at first hearing:

And when you kiss your little baby
You've kissed the face of God

I hope and trust and pray that all those who lost their earthly lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School are enjoying the heavenly light of the face of God this Christmas!