By Steve
Ekholm
Suquamish
United Church of Christ
December, 2006
Hello Father,
I have been
thinking a lot about light in
this season of
light. And especially I have
thinking about your love for us that so often comes to us as light.
Once upon a
time there was a light.
It did not
seem like much of a light. It was not
searing like
the light of a nuclear fire.
It did it have
the intensity of a laser or the
brightness of
a sun.
This light was
more like candle light soft and gentle,
Like one
candle burning bright in a window pushing
back the
night.
This light it
seemed turned up every where and when in
the vast
emptiness of space,
It shone in
the darkest corner of the darkest world,
even the
darkness of the human heart.
It shone frail
and gentle and lovely like one candle
burning bright
in a window
pushing back
the night.
The mightiest
powers in the universe tried to put out
this light
and failed,
Caesar,
Stalin, pollution, their names are legion,
Capitalism,
communism, disease, Dachau, the banality
of bill board
living,
Even the great
cold blackness,
The utter
darkness of interstellar space raged against
this light
and failed,
And failed to
put out this one frail light,
Shining like a
candle in a window warm and bright,
And the light
glowed bright in the heart of all that is,
Like one
candle in a window burning bright pushing
back the
night,
Transforming
every thing with its frail and gentle
light.
Nothing is
more powerful than this single candle
burning
bright.
In its
presence the darkness melts away like winters
darkest night
when kissed by spring.
The light
within is drawn to light to live the light,
to fill our
hearts with light to heal our lives.
There is
nothing in the universe more powerful than
this gentle
joyful healing light,
Like the light
of a single candle in a window burning
Pushing back
the night.
I have seen
the power of this light, burning bright
pushing back
the night.
Francis burned
with its power and its flame and so
did Gandhi and
King and children in a Bucharest
square. All of them children of the light,
legions of
them across
space and time filled with the power of
this light,
this single light burning bright like a
candle in a
window pushing back the night.
All of them
and more alive with light as if mere death
could ever
quench this light.
The light
shines bright,
Like a candle
in a window burning bright,
Pushing back
the night.
The light
within each human soul is moved to see the
power of the
light, to come
to this time of year to celebrate the
coming of the
light, on this great
and joyous
Holy night.
A manger
scene,
The light
becomes flesh to shine and to heal,
Like a candle
shining warm and bright,
Like a candle
in a window shining bright,
Moving in each
human life,
Shining
through our brokeness and our pain,
Inviting us to
be fully human once again,
Joy and love
and suffering and Easter morning this
light brings,
This light
that touches every human soul,
And when we
allow ourselves to be embraced by this
light
Our hearts
begin to glow,
And we become
like candle lights,
Gentle and
frail, like candles in a window shining
bright,
Pushing back
the night.
Amen