Was it light?
Was it light within?
Was it light within light?
Stillness, becoming alive, yet still.
-Roethke
The Advent and Christmas stories we love so much, the ones which work deeply in our souls, which we carry for a lifetime and retell to our children and grandchildren, all have one thing in common: The occur before the onset of electricity.
These stories take us back to a time when life was simpler; when church bells rang, horses pulled sledges through the snow, and children gathered around the fire to hear their father read stories from the Gospel in the evenings. People lived closer to the rhythms of nature, the sun, and the stars. And there was firelight everywhere.
We have lost much of that. Life has sped up, we have tremendous capacities, opportunity, freedom, intelligence, air travel, internet, and virtual reality. This has not come without consequences.
Our modern world is so loud and so fast, one wonders how the angels are supposed to “get through” to us. How can we become still enough to perceive the spiritual world anymore? And yet, we are still mortal. We are human souls walking in the darkness of earth's existence, seeking the light; the true light. When we turn to meditation or to prayer we return to candlelight. We may also desire to return to the innocence of the past, to not know what we know.
But what a deed it is to consciously bring the light of active thinking into the darkness of our time! Consider the candle: By the same force which draws the sap up through the plant or tree.
- Rev. Carol Kelly