What comes to your mind when you hear the word, light?
You might picture a porch light on a summer night, the air full with the sound of crickets and the glimmer of lightening bugs. You might imagine a stop light and waiting for it to turn green or the lights on a combine lumbering its way down a county road.
Who you are and where you happen to live will affect what you conjure in your mind when you hear the word, light.
“People do not light a lamp
then put it under as basket,” says the Lord.
“No. They place it a lamp stand
where it gives light to all in the house.”
Today, when Lee and Alexa hear these words about light from a household lamp, they might actually imagine strands of Christmas lights. Why? Because their first date was a drive to Englewood to view that town’s holiday display on the banks of the Great Miami River.
What a wonderful way to begin a friendship: celebrating the Light of Christ coming into the darkness of this world!
Given this remarkable beginning, how might God continue to draw this bridegroom and bride ever close to the light of His goodness, mercy and compassion?
Well, we have no idea regarding specific details yet, since today’s scripture speaks about an ordinary lamp in an ordinary house, it makes sense to focus on ordinary sources of light, such as the light in the hood above the stove as supper is being made, or the flashing number on the face of the alarm clock when it’s time to get up.
As we imagine their future together, it may be the night-light in a child’s bedroom that reminds them of God’s radiance spilling into the rooms of their house, along with the light of candles on birthday cakes and Advent wreaths, as well as the light on the vacuum cleaner, the glow of a computer screen and the glare of a bare bulb dangling from a treble cord beneath the raised hood of a truck inside the garage.
We do not know the manner in which God’s light will illumine Lee and Alexa’s home but, because their love is a holy and living sacrament, we do know that the brilliance that shines at the heart of their sacrificial love is nothing less the Light of the world, the Light of redemption, the Light of salvation breaking into the world! A Light that no darkness can ever extinguish.
Lee and Alexa, your love for each other, along with the firmness of your faith, enlighten each one of us here today. And we are grateful to Christ, our Savior, for bringing you together on that December night to gaze on festive lights commemorating His sacred birth.
May the glow of those lights ever sparkle in your eyes!
May the joy of this wedding day ever shine like a lamp in the sanctuary of your home!