Christmas Lights

Days of heavy clouds stifling the sunlight
the world burdened by greyness and gloom
Open our eyes, Lord, to the coming of your light,

lifting the burden of darkness from our lives

The play of light in darkness is the magic we bring to the Christmas season to celebrate the coming of Jesus ? aka the Light of the World. At the Christingle service, worshippers hold an orange containing a lit candle and four cocktails sticks laden with fruit of sweets. The orange represents the world (we take the responsibility for it into our hands), the candle represents the light of the world, the stick represents the four seasons or the four compass points, and the fruit/sweets represent the fruits of creation. Finally the Christingle is bound in red ribbon representing the blood of Christ by which the broken world is being bound up in reconciliation.

Similar themes come into play in the symbolism of the Advent Wreath: four red candles (one for each Sunday of Advent) in a circle (representing God's never-ending love) of evergreen (again, his love never dies) with red berries (blood) with a white candle at the centre of the arrangement ' lit on Christmas Day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, Light of the World.

Many people, when they pray, light a candle. In so doing they make the connection between a particular concern thinking of this in terms of darkness and the coming of light into that person, community or situation.

 The prayer posture taught in our schools has the same symbolism, although not many people are aware of it. 'Hands together, eyes closed' is how we are taught to pray as children. 'Hands together' actually makes the shape of a candle flame. 'Eyes closed' equals darkness. So when we pray with hands together and eyes closed we are physically praying for light to come into darkness. We are recognising that the light is outside us, perhaps even confessing that we keep it at arm?s length (that's where our hands are!) and that the darkness is inside us.