Strike a Light

One of the many familiar symbols of Christmas that are not exclusively Christian is the lighted candle.  Alongside the snow scenes, the crinolined ladies, the robins and the santas, it adorns many of the cards that will shortly be dropping through our letterbox.  Maybe you've already bought the ones you'll be sending, and many of them will have candles in their design.  What can the lowly candle tell us?

 

There used to be an expression, a euphemism for the act of dying, that is less common nowadays: ‘snuffing it’.  This was indeed a very accurate term, for as the body dies, it's as if the light of human life is being ‘snuffed out’, like the flame of a candle.  So the candle flame represents life.

 

The flame itself is in two parts.  Outside is the part we see, the bright light that illuminates the space around it; in the centre is the dark part where the action takes place.  This is the hottest part, and melts the wax of the candle, turning it into a vapour ready to be burned.  As it burns, the vapour gives us the light we value so much.  Our analogy continues, for life is like that, isn't it?  It has a controlled inner part, known only to ourselves, and a bright outer part that is seen by everyone, and able to affect others.

 

Effort is required to convert the fuel available – whether it’s food for our bodies or knowledge for our intellect – into a form that can nourish us.  If we don’t do this, then life will be very limited, in terms of either time or intensity, or both.  But lives that are nourished in this way provide rich rewards.  According to the King James Version of our Bibles, Jesus referred to a candle in just this way (Matthew 5:15-16).  A life that is constantly fed with physical or spiritual nourishment, or both, is a source of strength, enlightenment and enrichment to others around it.

 

I'm sure Christmas won't pass without your seeing a candle somewhere, whether on a card, in a picture, or in real life: perhaps in church.  If you light a candle this Christmas, take a moment to study it closely, and reflect just how closely it mirrors the truths of life itself, a life that was shared for just a short time by God's own Son.