"Twinkle, twinkle Christmas light, How you quench the dark of night!"

Fact: every culture that has trudged the face of this earth (and every religious persuasion that has attempted to mark man with its own sanctified stamp) has celebrated some kind of light festival at this, the darkest time of the year.

From the nature-worshiping Druids with their fires calling back the sun, to God's chosen nation of Israel with its menorah celebrating Hanukkah, each race of humanity has dreaded darkness and found comfort in light.

Surprised? Did you think as Christians we had a corner on this illumination market? (And when you look around at all these blinking Christmas lights, it IS difficult to think in any other direction, is it not?)

Well, perhaps we had all better think again.

And before you convict me of heresy, here, let me hasten to add that no matter what belief system you may choose to espouse, I have not found one that claims it an error to equate truth with light (and I make that claim based on the highest of authorities).

All right, all right, I won't dance around the bonfire murmuring chants to bring back the sun, but I will string blinking lights around windows, through evergreens and over the rooftops, while singing songs that focus attention on the Son.

(Think about it now, which example seems whackier to you when you really study on it?)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not making fun of the fact that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. But I do question the way we have come to distort the event.

Maybe it's time to simplify our celebration a bit in order to find the REAL light and the REAL truth hidden in amongst all that tinsel and wrapping paper.

Again, Mim Neal hits it right on the head, so I repeat this, my favorite, Christmas poem to help us all put the celebration in perspective:

Christmas can be celebrated with one 50-cent candle and compassion, but it never is. I won't put tinsel on the manger, or take hawking merchants for angels.
Yet I will bake cookies, buy presents and cards and commit the sin of self-exhaustion.
There is nothing wrong with sentiment or tradition, but they are less than the Event.
I will struggle to remember that Jesus Christ can redeem everyone and everything --
Even Christmas.

Light a candle and look deeply into its flame. I guarantee it will carry your focus upward.

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