On Sunday our assistant priest preached to a small congregation. Christmas on Sunday is always tricky and most people had come for the Christmas Eve service instead. We packed ourselves into the choir stalls in the chancel and listened to the readings, especially the Christmas Story from Luke 2, which Father Bruce chose as his text.
He pointed out something very interesting (neither S nor I had noticed it before in more than thirty years of hearing that passage). All the light that first Christmas night came from a star or from the glory of God- none of it was the light of dawn breaking.
This was not the light of a new day and a new world this was the light that illumines the old world and the old way of things. This was the light that shone in the darkness that the darkness was not able to understand or overcome.
I think I tend to focus on Easter Light- the new dawn breaking and the promise of renewal and re-creation. I need to think about this Christmas Light and how to live in it.