Churches are often full of light at this time a year as
we prepare our buildings for Christmas and candles take centre stage in our
worship, with the lighting of Advent Candles and the myriad of Christingle
Services held up and down the country.
This is no different at Christ the King and we took this opportunity
to use church candles as a teaching aid within church and schools to share an
important message.
A
Candle for Christmas* is a story about a small undervalued
birthday cake candle wanting to have an ‘important’ job like all the other
candles she sees around church: altar, Christingle, Paschal, Advent, and Votive.
In her journey around the church and her interaction with
the other church candles the Birthday Candle began to understand how the
different sorts of candles help the worship and life of the church. But as she
was to learn size and prominence don’t matter; however small and apparently
insignificant we may think we are, we are all important to God and our work and
worth are valued and recognised. As the little Birthday Candle was told:
“Importance has got nothing to do with size. In many ways
you are the most useful candle of all when we get to Christmas, because you
remind us that Christmas is a really important birthday; it’s the birthday of
Jesus – the time when God came into our world not as a great king, not as a
high and mighty ruler, but as a tiny helpless baby. That’s what we’re getting
ready for in church during what we call Advent. So you, (little) birthday
candle are just now about the most important candle of all.”
Like a
candle flame
Flickering small in our darkness
Uncreated light
Shines through infant eyes
Flickering small in our darkness
Uncreated light
Shines through infant eyes
God is with us, alleluia. Come to save us, alleluia. (Graham
Kendrick)
Ian Grange
*based on an originally story © Vaughan Roberts published
in the Nov/Dec 2000 edition of Together with Children
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