Light one candle

Who can forget the old Coke commercial with all those children holding lighted candles and singing their desire for perfect harmony throughtout the world?

How many of us have seen those streetside memorials to a victim of crime with teddy bears and candles for remembering?

Who wouldn't like to participate in a candlelit dinner for two with a beloved one?

Candles are universal ways to mark significant times - times of celebration, times of remembrance, times of deep emotion.
So clearly Christians didn't invent the idea of candles to mark time, in particular, the time of Advent.  But they are effective tools for us to remember and hope while we wait and watch for the coming of Jesus.

Candles offer to us the opportunity to use this familiar part of our faith life to build even stronger faith bonds within families, between couples, maybe even for folks who are unknown.

We are singing Light one candle to watch for Messiah as we light the Advent wreath.....and I would suggest that you do just that.  Light a candle and watch. 

Create a space in time once a week and a space in your home for a simple ritual of lighting a candle and looking for God to come into your life.  Call this 'sabbath' time; call it a new holiday tradition but do it.  Make it up as you go along - but take the time that is given to us in Advent to pause and think and maybe even talk about what the coming of God in Jesus means to you.  Help your children talk about God too.

Share how you have seen God active in the world - your world - your work - your family - even during a shopping trip.  Share acts of kindness and forgiveness that you have witnessed.  Share acts of charity and generosity that you know of.  Share the story of the guy who let someone get in front of him in line! 

And keep watching for ways in which God keeps breaking out and breaking into our world during this time of waiting and watching......and while you are at it, light a candle - all together as a family.
peace