Go Light Your World

There is a candle in every soul

Some brightly burning, some dark and cold

There is a Spirit who brings a fire

Ignites a candle and makes His home

So carry your candle, run to the darkness

Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn

Hold out your candle for all to see it

Take your candle, and go light your world

“Go Light Your World’ by Kathy Troccoli

Cautious about Coronavirus, my family is staying home from church services tonight on Christmas Eve.

I will miss the Christmas carols. The stories of Mary and Joseph and the wise men who followed a star. The sermon giving thanks for the baby wrapped in strips of cloth lying in the manger.

I will miss communion and passing the peace.

But most of all, I will miss the lighting of candles at the end of the service. The moment when the sanctuary goes dark and quiet before the organ plays Silent Night.

Holding the flame of a single candle, the pastor steps down from the altar and begins to share his fire. The waiting congregation holds unlit sticks of wax that are useless until ignited. The flame multiples to two, four, eight, and sixteen as it passes from candle to candle.

I will miss the faces illuminated as the blaze is passed — given by one and received by another.

I will miss the glow of the church as the congregation sings “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright” on one of the longest nights of the year. Hundreds of candles flickering to the song of radiant beams, redeeming grace and love's pure light.

But the song and warmth of flames held close to hearts ends too soon.

After the final “Jesus, Lord at thy birth” is sung, I will miss the pastor giving his benediction of encouragement, sending us back into the world to let our lights shine.

“I share my light with you to help your light shine. Then we shine brighter together,” is the blessing Pastor Darren McClellan gives his congregation at Fairhope United Methodist Church.

Pastor Kip Laxson ends his Christmas Eve Service at Asbury Methodist Church in Birmingham with, “Just as Christ is the light of the world, may that light burn brightly in you. That as you go forth in faith, you may be the light in your world.”

The flames are blown out. We walk out of the church, dropping the melting candles into the boxes by the doors.

Sermons, songs, and pandemics end. Candles melt down. But the light shared still shines in each of us.

Take your candle and go light your world.