Today we light seven candles.
We kindle these lights of Hanukkah to commemorate the wonders and the miracles and the saving acts that God has performed for our forefathers. All throughout the eight days of Hanukkah, these lights are thought of as being holy as we behold them, in order to offer thanks and praise to Our Great God, for His miracles, for His wonder, and for His salvation.
Today as we light seven candles we will meditate on the following three scriptures:
Matthew 5:16: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Luke 11:33: No man when he hath lighted a candle, puts it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.
John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Part of coming into the light is shedding the light of our faith out to others.
A few years ago I was with my oldest grandson at a local event in our community zoo. They call the event The Zoolight Safari, and the whole zoo is lit up with beautiful lights. Everything everywhere you go is very festive. The colors of the lights are so pretty and amazing. We always enjoy this event.
This year I enjoyed it even more because of something my grandson said to me. As we were strolling along drinking our hot chocolate and chatting; he looked up into the sky. I followed his lead and we both noticed that beyond these man-made lights; there were the lights of heaven that our Creator put into place for us.
My grandson paused and after a few seconds of reflection He said; “G-Ma, this light show is great; but those stars up there are REAL! They are the ones that God put there for us to see. I think I love them the best.”
My heart was delighted at the wisdom of this nine-year old boy. He had noticed far more than the adults in our little excursion.
Again I found myself pondering how wonderful it is to know God with the heart of a child. God leads you into so much wonder; far beyond what any man could ever think on his own.
All of this wonder is meant to be shared.
You can’t hold it back or hide it behind the doors of your house; you must share it with the world.
We have God’s light burning within our souls, and He calls us to share it every day that we live; yes, all of us, not just a few of us. Each person has a special and unique way of sharing what God put specifically into their own personality.
I know deep down inside that God would never call us to do the impossible.
The Maccabees must have felt that same way.
They lived in a dark world but they did all they could to put out the darkness with the light of God. Nothing is impossible with God. That is part of what the miracle of the light that lasted for eight days is saying to us. Have hope; nothing is impossible with God.
Actually we make the whole ‘share your faith’ thing much more difficult than God makes it.
Our “can’t” does not really hold up in real life when we meet people living in darkness without hope.
We can try to hide, but God’s light always shines through us eventually.
As Leonard Cohen once noted in the words of his song; “we have cracks in our souls that leak God’s light out to others.”
Even a tiny little star in the sky can change the darkness to light, much like the little children’s song we all know. “Twinkle, twinkle little star!”
We all can make a difference in our twinkling.
Everyone of us can light up the sky with hope when we come together in love.
Let’s go out there and share the light from the God who is REAL.