Lighting the Candle

This is the day before Christmas.... the day we spend rushing around with last minute preparations for the “Big Day”.  This is the day we look forward to the coming of eve when our hearts and minds are centered on Jesus’ birth. 

Tonight there will be the lighting of candles as we Christians join together in celebrating the coming of “the Light of the world”.  This evening, too, our Jewish brothers and sisters light the first candle of the Festival of Lights....Chanukah.  I find it powerfully symbolic that this year when the world is so much in need of light, we join together in prayer ...prayer illuminated by the flame of a candle.  That flame is shared by millions of people lighting candles in every corner of the world. 

This Christmas eve, this Chanukah, unites us all.  Tonight we rekindle the flame of hope as we join in prayer with those persecuted, the poor, the immigrant, the lonely, the lost, the homeless.  We join with those who fight for our freedoms and to protect our earth.

So tonight when I light my little candle, its tiny flame will carry my prayer and unite it with the prayers of every other lighted candle.  Through that flame I join with you and all my brothers and sisters throughout the world, regardless of nationality or religion.  Tonight our human family becomes one....as it should always be.

Merry Christmas to you all!  May the light of hope, joy and peace always burn within!  God bless!