This year, December feels a little different.

For those of us used to the rush of dress rehearsals and holiday concerts, dinner parties and family gatherings, neighborhood caroling, and late-night Christmas Eve services, this December is a little different.

We know what it means to be "the people walking in darkness." We long to see a great light.

And we're growing tired of waiting.

But maybe it's here, in this waiting, that we'll find it. Maybe it's not a great light we're waiting for, but small fragments, like the tiny flames that dot the dark sanctuary on Christmas Eve.

Maybe we've been looking in the wrong places.