Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 22

As a child, one of my favorite moments of the Christmas season was the Christmas Eve lighting of the Christ candle on the large Advent wreath that stood at the front of my church. All season, we would light a candle each week — time that for a child passed painstakingly slowly. Finally, though, while snuggled in next to all my family in the pew, it would be time for that last candle to be lit, and I would have a sense of contentment in the completion.

Unfortunately, in our world, the candles of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love are often extinguished by the grim realities we have explored in this devotional series. Our world continues to be a place that is plagued by Fear, Turmoil, Despair, and Loneliness, putting out the expectant lights of Advent.

What do you fear? What smothers the light of hope?
Where do you see turmoil in the world? What extinguishes peace on earth?
Why are there so many unhappy people? What snuffs out daily joys?
Why are we more “connected” than ever in history and yet more lonely? What causes the love light to go out?

Yet, through it all, there is nothing that can extinguish the Christ light. It is permanent and fixed. We can go back to it again as often as we need to be “relit.” When any one of these emotions captures our heart and casts us into the shadows, we can return to the warmth of Christ to find comfort again.

Our whole life is a series of being “blown out” by the world and being “relit” by Christ. For those who do not know of the light or cannot reach it alone, it is our job to bring the light to the shadows or to carry people to the Christ-light.

Mourners lay candles outside the headquarters of Charles University on Dec. 22, 2023, for the victims of a mass shooting in Prague, Czech Republic. (Petr David Josek/Associated Press)