A blessed Christmas day to you and yours!

While celebrating with the Wehrenfennigs after the midnight church service, it occurred to me that most Americans don’t realize that Germans still use real candles on their Christmas tree. Contrary to expectations, it doesn’t seem to result in very many fires. There are probably a couple of reasons for this: the “Tannenbaum” is not normally put up until Christmas Eve; most homes have a bucket of water near the tree; someone is always in the room with the tree.

This year Chanukkah and Christmas overlap. Chanukkah is the only feast in the Jewish year that doesn’t have roots directly in the Old Testament; it celebrates the cleansing of the temple under the Maccabees, when there was not enough consecrated oil to keep the Holy Place lighted until fresh oil could be prepared. A miracle happened and the menorah kept burning until it could be refilled. Jesus celebrated this feast, as recorded in the Gospel of John, chapter 8. Connecting the image of light to Himself, He said, “I am the light of the world.”

Let’s pray together that this Christmas-Chanukkah season the light of His love and character will shine brightly through us, His people - out to a needy and dark world.

There is a wonderful story of the German “Christmas Markets” in the Munich newspaper, the Süddeutsche Zeitung. (It’s in English.) Enjoy!