Celebrate the Light!

Two recycled candle holders newly adorn my dining room table.  I admit, they're kind of big and awkward, but that's OK, they have a story to tell.  These are souvenirs from my first Passover Seder.

Because the Seder I attended was such a memorable occasion for me, I decided to take home the empty Manischewitz wine bottle from my table, as a souvenir.  The sweet tasting wine brought back memories to me of when my church used to serve this brand of wine for communion.  I liked the connection it signified to me between what I had always known and what I was learning.  A friend encouraged to take home two bottles and use them for candle holders, so without any qualms, I plucked a second bottle from the trash.

Hmmm.....what to do?  As usual, I pondered over ideas for a while before deciding how to decorate the bottles that I would use as candle holders.  I decided to cover them with the names of God, both in English and Hebrew.  On the body of the bottles, I decoupaged tissue paper and pictures representing some of the names of Christ.  The images came from the Adornaments that my boys had learned from each year, when we had celebrated Christ at Christmas.  

The bottles also display the beginning and ending letters of the Greek and the Hebrew alphabets.  This is to depict what Jesus, Yeshua, says about himself in Revelation 22:13,  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."  

In the Paleo-Hebrew alephbet , the first letter, the aleph, meant "strength" - depicted by the symbol an ox head. The last letter of the alephbet, tav, had as its letter picture, an X or a cross - a symbol or sign of "covenant". Consequently, aleph-tav literally means, "strength of the covenant".  So Yeshua is declaring here, "I am the strength of the covenant!"  The implications of this statement go deep, and this understanding has been life-changing for me.

Decorating each candle ring, is a Star of David.  With six points, it symbolizes God's rule over the universe in all six directions: north, south, east, west, up and down.  It speaks to the hope that we find when we place our trust in the LORD.  I also see it as representational of the promised, anointed, King of Righteousness, the Son of David.

Just as the names of God shed light on His character, so  shall these candles shed light on our table as we dine and fellowship together.  I pray that they will spark many a conversation about our LORD.  He is worthy of our conversation, our wonder, our praise and worship!

The Light of the World has come.....in the form of Yeshua the Messiah!

Let's celebrate Him!