By Pastor Leah Fintel Krotz, Trinity Lutheran Church, Bruning
As I'm writing this, we are waking up to the 6th or so day in a row of fog and mist and dreary skies. It is warm for late December, so I'm thankful for that. But I think the dreariness is starting to get people down.
Sue Hinrichs and I were talking about this and, trying to look on the bright side, she reminded me that Larry says that if the old wisdom holds true, will be having lots of moisture at the end of March, ninety days after the fog. Hopefully that moisture will come in the form of rain and not blizzards!
We have just survived the longest night, the Winter Solstice, December 21st. The dark, the cold, and the lack of green growing things can make this a time of year when we long to just hunker down in our recliners, bask in the glow of our screens, and wait it out.
But in ancient times, there was no such opportunity. No electricity, and not even candles unless you were wealthy. It seems to me to be no accident that the Light of the World came to us at the darkest time of the year.
John 1:5 boldly proclaims, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
One of my favorite scriptures, this is the one I read as I hold my candle high in the cavernous darkness of the church on Christmas Eve. From that one candle, representing Christ, the Light of the World, all the people, young and old, light their candles.
I have the best view in the house, as I watch the little flames spread from one person to another-- soon filling the whole church.
As Christians, we celebrate the Light that has conquered the darkness and will never be overcome. No matter how dark things become in our lives, or in the world, we can cling to that hope and know that the Light of the World will never leave us.
