Happy Hanukkah!! Last night was the first night of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. You know the story: the Maccabees drive out the foreign oppressors and cleanse the Temple in Jerusalem. They need to rededicate the Temple to the Lord, a ceremony which will require eight days worth of oil for the lamps. They don't have that much, but the begin the ceremony anyway. Miraculously, their insufficient oil supply lasts the eight days and the Temple is cleansed and rededicated! Yeah!!!
This is a great story for many reasons. Chief in my mind is the role of scarcity in our lives and God's answer to it. They didn't have enough oil to finish their rededication ceremony. God saw this and what did he do? Did he miraculously provide rivers of oil--enough to light the world? No. He provided enough to get through the ceremony. God's answer to scarcity is not abundance, but sufficiency. They have enough. In our culture, where so much value is placed on abundance, this is an important lesson!
With the change in the seasons, I've been thinking about sustainability. As we beat back the cold, I'm thinking about both the price and the cost of our lifestyle. I've got an old programmable thermostat that I bought 20 years ago. I've NEVER been able to install it anywhere, but I think It can go in our house now, so I'm going to look into it this week. We're also starting to talk about planting a modest garden in the spring.
Think Green!!
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