Dedication
The Hanukkah season is upon us. It is easy to
get up in the same frenzy as the “Christmas Season”, with the buying of gifts,
decorating the house festively, the planning of family get-togethers, and so
on.
As believers, we
try to keep the focus on spiritual things, such as the miracle that happened,
giving Hanukkah its second appellate, The
Festival of Lights. There is deep significance in this, and we should
always meditate on this time when the Light of the World came to us.
However, let us
take special notice of the primary name of the feast: Dedication, and consider what deep things the Holy Spirit wishes to
teach us through this wonderful time of the year.
In the allegory The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S.
Lewis painted an alternate world where it was perpetual winter, to depict a
place where evil reigned. While children have fun playing in the snow and a
blanket of fresh snow can make the scenery beautiful, let us focus on one of
the spiritual aspects of winter. The world’s calendar begins the year in the
dead of winter. In direct opposition to this, the Lord begins the spiritual
year in the Spring, when everything is coming to life.
Winter can be a symbol of death, of a desolate, cold time when food cannot be
grown, when the sun is rarely seen.
It was in the midst
of our spiritual winter—a time when the whole world was dark, searching for the
light of truth, that the Holy Spirit overshadowed
Mary, and the light of God, Messiah, physically came to us.
To save humanity
and secure the universe from sin, Messiah set aside his divine prerogatives in
self-sacrificing love and took the form of fallen man. 33 years later, when
facing certain death and the horrors of the cross,
the gospel of Luke records, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that
he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Messiah
was determined to save us, no matter the cost to himself, for he had dedicated
his very life for this.
It was during this
time of The feast of Dedication that an angel of God
approaches Mary with an awesome responsibility being offered to her. Notice the
humble attitute Mary takes, as she dedicates herself
to this very purpose: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according
to thy word.” (Luke 1:37). Notwithstanding
Simeon’s prophecy, “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also” (Luke
No doubt, the
dedication of Messiah and Mary are rooted in the very first Feast of
Dedication, when the restored
Yes, the most holy place is to be found within
our conscience. It is here that the
Spirit of God wishes to dwell. Much like the temple in
Just around the
corner is the time when the world celebrates the beginning of its “New Year”
with revelry and foolishness. It is in this manner that they hope to to kick
off a year different than the previous one, by making silly “resolutions”, 90%
of which will be broken within the first week.
Let us not be like
the world. Rather than make “resolutions”—based on our own strength and resolve
to change, let us make the spiritual decision to dedicate ourselves to the service and use of God. As Mary dedicated
herself to the purposes of the Almighty, as Jesus dedicated his life for his
lost children, as the restored
For
thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will
enlighten my darkness. Psalm