Light

I was recently chatting to a friend, who isn't a Christian and she came out with this statement.

"It isn't an accident that all these different faiths celebrate light and bright holidays at this time of year, when it is at it's darkest. It reminds us that even though times in life are bad, even though things seam dark gloomy and hopeless, there is still light."

I Couldn't help but be reminded of a few verses.

“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
   the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
   Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people living in darkness
   have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
   a light has dawned.”^[a]

 ¹⁷ From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

 ⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

¹² When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

 ¹³ The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

   “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are starting to pop up all over Dnipropetrovsk as we prepare to light up the city for Novie God. New year.

This was from last year

You see, in Ukraine the order of holidays is slightly different from western countries which celebrate the birth of christ Christmas on the 25th and then New Year on the 1st of January. Here New Year is also on the 1st of January but Christmas is on the 7th of January (following the old calendar).

Matters then become slightly more interesting with Starey Novie God, [old new year]. This is the date of New Year under the old Gregorian calendar.

For me these lights are a great reminder of the coming of the winter holidays, (which is further reinforced by the ever creping date on my pace charts that show Christmas is coming and get's closer ever time I fill in a completed lesson) the joy of seeing family and [girl]friend[s] and most importantly the reminder of the light of the world, who entered it.

That is what these lights originally symbolised and as such the choice to replace the winter pagan festivals with a celebration of Jesus Birth is no accident. Light seams even brighter in the darkness. What a great reminder these are.

p.s. It also means my Years Aims are almost at an end! I guess this means I'll have to come up with some new ones for next year.