Light a candle for Christmas

Christmas Day is past, yet the glow may still be lighting certain corners of our lives.

The thought struck me a couple of days ago, “Candles are an important part of Christmas, from cultural tradition even if not part of the original story.”

Wise sayings cluster around the use of candles: “Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”; “How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” When Shakespeare said this, naughty meant worthless.

Many churches have discovered that the lighting of Advent candles the four Sundays of the season is a meaningfu...