Hanukkah, The Feast of (re) Dedication
Happy New Year 2006! It’s New Years Night and it’s also the last night of Hanukkah. I think it’s very significant that this year the first evening of Hanukkah fell on Christmas day and the last evening of Hanukkah falls on New Year’s Night. For me and for many other people as well) New Years is a great time to take stock of where I’m at spiritually and to set goals for the next year. It’s been a wild kind of year. Just watching the news has been wild. First the tsunami hits Asia and then Katrina hits my hometown of New Orleans. The last few months of 2005 were exhausting and I found myself very much in need of a break for the holidays and some r and r: restoration and revival.
So, I’ve been praying and asking God for direction, correction and wisdom for the New Year. I was reading up today on Hanukkah, since we’re in the season, and also because Aimee went to a sleep over-last night at a Jewish friend’s house and participated in the lighting of the Menorah. Even though I’m not Jewish, I love the Jewish holidays. I once threw a Purim party for all the kids in the neighborhood. We celebrate Passover every year. I believe that the Jewish feasts reflect God’s prophetic calendar. But I’ve never paid much attention to Hanukkah, at least until this year. When it fell on Christmas I reflected that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah, the New Testament says so in John 10:22:
And it was at Jerusalem the feast of dedication, and it was winter.
I knew Hanukkah had to do with the Maccabees, and the rededication of the temple after it had been defiled, and oil that was miraculously replenished for eight days. But after I got done reading up on the details I wanted to run out and get a menorah so we could light it for the last night of Hanukah. If I had known where I could find one on New Years Day in Santa Clarita I would have run out and got one. Well maybe we’ll get one for next year. I’ll share more about what I learned about Hanukkah tomorrow or the next time I blog. The main thing is that it’s time for rededication. So I rededicate myself to the Lord and pray for Him to miraculously replenish the oil in my lamp so I can be a light for Him.
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2 comments:
Next year, try Linens & Things -- they always have a lot of nice items for the Jewish holidays.
Then again, you're now spending so much time on the Westside... you should have NO PROBLEMS finding stuff there! :)
Thanks for the suggestion, there's a Linens and Things right down the street.
I should visit the Fairfax district while Aimee's at gym sometime. I used to go to bookstores there when I went to UCLA. I also want to find a good "teach your kid Hebrew" book. Aimee is interested in learning it and I need to capitalize on her interest now.
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