Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minnetonka

A study group for women focusing on the book, "The Yada Yada Prayer Group," will begin meeting Saturday mornings in January.  All women are welcome to join this group.  Each of the nine sessions will begin by listening to a chapter of the book and then discussing it.  The book may be purchased if so desired.

   The first session is Saturday, January 14, beginning at 9:30 AM.  The group will meet in the library of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 5701 Eden Prairie Road, Minnetonka, Minnesota (between Crosstown Highway 62 and Excelsior Boulevard on Eden Prairie Road).  Contact the church office (952/934-9633) for more information.

            Some of my earliest memories of Christmas time at home as a child include candles.  I’m sure that is true for ‘most all of you.  My mother made candles, using wax from nearly-spent leftover candles.  The wax was melted and poured into cone-shaped milk cartons, or whatever container worked, with a wick suspended through its middle.  After the wax hardened, she would whip up wax icings, colored with various shades of food coloring and sometimes including glitter, to spread over the hardened candle.  The result would be various shapes, sizes, colors, and textures of candles for use around the house over Advent and Christmas.  Along with the Christmas cookie decorating project, gift buying and wrapping, and Sunday School program rehearsing, this was an important part of each Christmas.

            So much so, that for quite a few years afterwards, when I would meet a candle burning in our home, the sight—and aroma—carried just a hint of the old Christmas feeling from my childhood, no matter what time of year it was.  Later in my life, on the few occasions when I would visit a church somewhere that had either (horrors!) electric candles on the altar or, more recently, oil-burning “candles” that don’t burn down and are not of wax and don’t smell the same, it just didn’t seem right.  That penchant for real candles on or near the altar in church might just have come from my childhood Christmases and the work my mother did to fill our home with the flickering lights—and aromas—of this special season.

            Christmas—“Christ Mass,” Jesus’ birthday celebration—is a time for lights.  We celebrate this Blessed Event when the sun has started to rise from its lowest point in the northern hemisphere sky.  Jesus, of course, said that he is the Light of the World.  Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied that God was bringing “light to those who sit in darkness,” helping “the dawn from on high” to “break upon us.”  Then, as we know, the angel lit up the night sky, and “the glory of the Lord shone around” those shepherds.

            It’s hard to imagine so much light, and in a totally dark night sky.  That’s why we have Christmas lights, why they are on the trees and on houses and at the stores. Maybe we should ask people if they know what the lights mean. 

            Yours for a “candle-rific” time celebrating the birth of our Savior with whatever lights we have available.  After all, that’s what God did!

            Peace in the name of Christ!      ~  Pastor David Buuck