twenty four.

Christmas Eve Service.

I'm stealing this idea from an advent devotion my mom wrote. My favorite service of the entire year is always Christmas Eve. It's always a similar message... about the birth of baby Jesus. The music is always beautiful. The anticipation of the children in the room is always tangible. But at my church, like many others I'm sure, we have a special custom... at the end of the service the pastor uses the Christ candle on the altar to light the candles of the congregation. Each person passes the light to the person beside them until every candle is lit. The lights of the sanctuary are then dimmed. All of this happens as we sing the song "Silent Night." We are then to leave the sanctuary in silence.

It may not seem very special just hearing about it, but being in the presence of that glow is something inexplicable. I cry every time. God's light and love is passed to us, each and every one of us. We can pass along that light as well. Other people see God in us. That is our calling as Christians... to share God's light. We ourselves need to glow like those little candles. All of those wonderful qualities that Jesus possessed as a human (and as a heavenly being), we possess those as well. He has bestowed them onto us. We may have to dig a little to find them or try a little harder to use them, but they are there. That is our blessing. Let your light shine just like that special baby's light shown to the world on the night of His birth. Let that hope ring through the new year. Be bearers of Christ's light to the world.