Holidays ran into each other for our multi-faith family this week. The first night of Hanukkah fell on Wednesday — Christmas Day. Our Hanukkah candles shimmer in the light of our Christmas tree.
We know that they are different holidays. But in a way, each reminds us of the power of light in a world that so often seems dark.
Hanukkah celebrates the lights said to burn for eight nights, from a lone vial of oil, during the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. And Christmas recalls the bright star in the night that guided people to a barn in Bethlehem where an infant was born and called a king.
And so we’ve uttered quite a few prayers this week.
We moved from the words in a Hanukkah blessing, “Baruch atah Adonai, Blessed are you, Our God…who …commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah lights…” to a Christmas prayer that says, “Lord…we praise you for the great wonders you have sent us: for a shining star and angel’s song, for an infant’s cry in a lowly manger…”
The faiths in our family include skepticism. But we have come to think of prayers not as a list of wishes hurled into the heavens, so much as messages we send into our own hearts. Prayers can remind us of what has lasting worth in this life. The hope we hold for each child; and our longing to bring light into the world.