Guide Posts With Bob Smith

There a few things lovelier than candlelight. When we want to create a romantic mood nothing does it better. When we want to remember a loved one, nothing expresses our feelings more deeply than lighting a candle. One candle is all it takes to dispel the darkness of a room and one candle is all it takes to dispel our fear of the dark. The gentleness of candlelight has always been seen as a symbol of Christ’s presence. The Bible describes his coming into the world as light shining in the darkness, giving light to all people. The prophet Isaiah wrote of him, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows, but now light is shining on them.” So, this Christmas, when you find your gaze irresistibly drawn again to the Christmas candles, remember that Jesus is the light who shines also to bring comfort, hope and guidance for you.

Each year thousands of letters addressed to God end up in a sorting office in the Jerusalem GPO. A spokesman said, “We have hundreds of thousands of letters sent either to God or Jesus Christ, and for some reason they come to Jerusalem.” In one letter an Israeli man asked God for five thousand shekels to ease his poverty. The Jerusalem postal workers were so moved by it that they did a whip round and raised four thousand three hundred shekels which they sent to him. But a month later, the same person wrote again to God, thanking him for the contribution, but asking that next time not to send it through the post because the postal workers had stolen seven hundred shekels. Well, God works in mysterious ways, they say, sometimes even through the people at the GPO. But the biggest mystery of all is often our inability to recognize it.