Pause, read and reflect on the collect for today which follows: “Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” That enkindling is what the Christmas season is all about.

“When the fullness of time had come,” Christ Jesus came to set us ablaze, burning with the zeal of God’s love so that we might become light in the dark places of our world today. John the evangelist tells us that the light that Christ enkindles in our hearts is for everyone, all people everywhere -- not just those that look like us, sound like us, think like us, or believe like us, but for all people around the world. The Holy One didn’t put the light of Christ under a bushel to hide it, to protect it from hostile forces. No, God generously, compassionately poured it upon each of us so that we might pass it on to those who are yet stumbling in the dark. The light of Christ can shine through us if we let it, if we stoke the fire with our daily encounters with the Holy One, if we don’t allow the flame to be smothered through our inattention.

Christ’s love light is enkindled in our hearts by God’s own hand for the life of the world.