Advent Candle

Photo: "Adventný veniec I." by Bubamara. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Light and warmth radiate from the advent candle, illuminating the evergreen ring of the advent wreath. So commences another Advent—a New Beginning!

                These four weeks of preparation are important in our spiritual life. Autumn is always a time of loss—trees lose their beautiful leaves to stand as bare skeletons against the bleak winter sky. Daylight loses hours to darkness, both morning and evening. The warmth of summer and early fall fades to the chill of November and even colder months ahead. The northland loses sight of green grass and sound of bird as it braces for the hard onset of winter. Our hearts remember loved ones we have lost and years that are no more.

                Yet, just as the small flame of a candle cuts through the darkness, Advent breaks into all the losses of our lives. Not simply doomed to an endless cycle of time and seasons, we see the flicker of hope. God is about to break into an ordinary night of shepherds watching their sheep and animals eating hay from a manger.

                As the first Advent candle is lit, so begins the fresh hope of a new church year. So begins our vigil and preparation for the celebration of Christ’s the birth, Immanuel—God with us. He is the “rising sun [who] will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness” (Luke 1:78-79).

                Advent—New Beginning! Light to warm our hearts and illumine our way! Let us enter this season with open hands and a receptive spirit, ready to rest in the glow of the Advent candle, radiating the hope and promise of God come to earth to be with us!

© 2015 Glenn E. Myers