One of the joys of the Christmas Tree Festival is to see the delight on people's faces as they enter the Church and see the array of Trees with their decorations and lights.  Children, especially, express this delight with wonder and awe.  Another joy takes place in the days before the Festival opens when people come to decorate their trees.  There is such a buzz and creative attitude.

On the High Street on Friday somebody said to me that our Festival has become such a part of Epping's Christmas.  For me, another part, is the simple white lights on the trees above the shops.  Understated, far away from the glitter of the Oxford Street Lights, they give a Christmas message in a particular Epping way.

Each tree - whether in the Festival or on the High Street is making a very special kind of statement.  In the darkness of winter these lights penetrate that darkness and dims it.  There is a kind of comfort too even in towns where street lights illuminate the way.  Perhaps it's the purity of the white lights which contrast so vividly with the inky blackness of the night.  Don't we love starts for that reason too?

In my last parish there were no street lights and driving home late at night, it was the light in isolated farmhouses which pricked the darkness and made my journey more comforting.

Light is an essential part of the Christmas message.  Maybe that is why we have placed Christmas in the darkest part of the year because it emphasises this Light.  John's Gospel talks of it as Light coming into the world  - in the beautiful Prologue to his Gospel which is all about this Light  which shines in the darkness - and the darkness did not overcome it.

The Light is of course, Jesus - the Word from God, as John describes him.  Those first 14 verses of John's Gospel are his version of the Incarnation - which St Luke together with Matthew has described in more physical terms as the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem.  John doesn't tell us about that because he doesn't need to.  Luke has already done it for him. John, instead, dwells on the meaning.  The Light penetrates the darkness in a symbolic way of saying that God in Jesus has entered our dark world and illuminated it from within.  The sinful, loveless world has been transformed by the light of God's love - and goes on being transformed through us Christians for whom that light and that love has illuminated our lives from within.  We become God's Christmas lights shining in the dark world for today.

When children see our Festival lights they are often filled with wonder and joy.  I hope that when I use the word 'children' it is understood that I do so in an 'all-age' sort of way!  We can all experience the pleasure.  As Christians we have to share that.  So a question.  If people look at your life, will they see the light of God's love shining form it and experience an awe of, and a joy for, God?