I don't know about you, but I do hate the dark. No, I'm not frightened, but during winter I really do feel there is too much of it, and in order to keep going I have to use a couple of light-boxes at home, to ward off the depression and stop me falling asleep. But the symbolism is rich - my own experience with S.A.D. makes me know that light is healing.

We talked a lot about this during our recent Christingle Service. Just as light (in our case candles and Christmas tree lights) shows up dark corners and transforms them, so did the birth of Jesus begin a process of illumination to many other dark places - in us - and in our world. St John, in the prologue to his remarkable gospel, tells us "This life brought light to mankind." (1-4).

As the children's hymn puts it:

'From the darkness came light,
From the blackest of nights,
Wait for the morning - the sunlight - the dawning
From the darkness came light.'

All we have to do is to welcome that light, as we might welcome a new day's sunlight and allow it to penetrate us and work in us and show us the way ahead.

But that also means that we must recognise our own dark places and allow them to be scrutinised by Jesus, and healed. Healing can be painful because it often involves cutting-away entrenched attitudes, long held beliefs, or genuine misconceptions about people and things, or as another hymn puts it:

'Let in the light; all sin expose.'

I realised long ago (as I was doing a spot of housework one morning) that 'cleaning' and 'healing' are very much linked, and that just as I was vacuuming the carpet and restoring it to its pristine condition, Jesus came to clean us and restore us to the condition he had in mind when we were made. At our baptism, which involves cleansing with water, we allow Jesus to begin this important process, and as we grow and mature in our faith we discover that it's an ongoing activity. If we let Him, Jesus will keep on showing us our 'dark bits' and offering to clean and heal us all our lives ("like peeling the layers off an onion" a friend once said). (Ouch!).

"Earth so dark - so cold,
What great secrets you hold .."
so that children's song goes on.

The days get longer, we have more light, and light brings GROWTH! Have you looked in your garden recently? Or along the roadside, or in the field? In my teaching days, at this time of the year, I used to start challenging my pupils to go looking for 'signs of early spring'. My favourite book would be displayed prominently in the classroom. I remember it well - The Ladybird Nature Series "What to look for in Spring" (price 2s6d - anyone else remember those?) and beginning with a picture of snowdrops - there were full-colour pictures on each page - full of things to 'spot' as they came alive again after the winter, as the hours of daylight increased. Even in January, which is considered a winter month, the signs of new life are all around, waiting to be discovered, because 'The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out' (John 1 again).

So Jesus, the embodiment and human face of God's healing love and power, is in the world to stay, and it is up to us to open our windows and let the light of God's glory in - and be prepared for it to show up a few cobwebs and other places that need cleaning, so that we can grow in the right direction.

January - a brand new year, a gift from God, and opportunity for a growth-inducing spring-clean?

Let's get together and help each other in this (more on this later - perhaps), and make 2004 the best (leap) year yet!

Lots of blessing - Margaret C
1st January 2004