Four Weeks of Advent Candles and Their Meanings – Week 4

This week, we visit the fourth Advent candle, followed in some churches by the Christ candle. The first three Advent candles represented, hope, peace, and joy.

The fourth candle is the Love candle. Some churches and traditions call this one the Angel candle.

How appropriate that the candles represent Scriptures and events about the birth of Christ in chronological order.

Candle one was hope, also the Prophets’ Candle, representing those who foretold of our coming Savior. Candle two was the Peace candle or the Bethlehem Candle that took us on Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Candle three is the Joy Candle. What joy filled the air the night our blessed Savior came into this world. It is also known as the Shepherds’ Candle. They were the first to hear of the Good News of His birth, read Luke 2:8-14.

LOVE – THE WORD MADE FLESH

Four Weeks of Advent Candles and Their Meanings -Week 4 @DDuPreeWilliams #faith #Advent #writers Share on X

The fourth Advent candle is the Love candle and represents the love of God coming to earth in human form. The Word made flesh as the Gospel of John tells us.

In the beginning was the Word,

    and the Word was with God,

 and the Word was God.

    He was with God in the beginning.

 All things came to be through him,

    and without Him nothing made had being.

 In him was life,

    and the life was the light of mankind.

 The light shines in the darkness,

   and the darkness has not suppressed it.   (Yochanan 1:1-5 TCJSB).

Jesus came to earth because of love. The love of our Father for us.

JOHN 3:16

Nothing says this any better than John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (KJV). And let’s not forget 1 John 4:7-8 Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love (TCJSB).

On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, we will light the white candle, the Christ candle. White for the purity of the perfect Lamb of God. The Love of God which came to earth to save us.

The final sacrifice.

Blessings, y’all.

Please indulge me a few moments here. I cannot begin to count how many times I’ve sung this beautiful hymn. I began singing it when Charles Hinson came to Andalusia, Alabama as my new choral director. I was 16. I’ve sung it so many times since then, I consider it my theme song if one can have such. I sang it at the funerals of both of my parents. Writer friends, listen closely to the words. It says God’s love is so great, that neither a tongue nor a pen could ever tell it all. The second verse talks of writing God’s love across the sky. Impossible. Not even with an ocean full of ink or the entire sky upon which to write it. The oceans would be emptied of that ink. Here’s the thing. When I began singing this, I thought I’d be singing about God’s love my entire life. And I did for a long, long time. I began singing in church when I was just three. I’m many decades beyond that now. I was a lyric soprano. If there was a high note to be sung, I sang it. If there was a run up and down for line after line, I sang it. But now, my vocal cords are tired and old. I can still make a joyful noise in church, but the days of singing those kinds of solos are behind me. But . . . a few years ago, God gave me a second voice. One I had never suspected. In spite of singing about writing the love of God for all those years. Yet, here I am. In my seventh decade, doing precisely that. Writing about the love of God. It was only today as I sat to attach this lovely old hymn to this post that I realized that God had given me this song prophetically. Here’s my message to you  . . . God is in the details. In the seemingly little things that pass by us. He had been there all those years as He’s here now, directing my words and my actions, lighting the path He has for me, whether I’m singing in a choir, or writing posts like this one. Right now, I can tell you I feel a bit overwhelmed by God’s love. Not just that He sent His Son for us, but that He already knows our paths. He knew I’d be writing these words today. If you are a writer friend, don’t give up on your dream. I had NO idea I had this within me. NONE. Y’all! I wrote just to help my boys get through poetry units in middle and high school. I wrote to entertain my granddaughters. But here I am . . . a published author, at age 70, and still writing. Hold onto your dreams. He can fulfill them when you least expect it. Because He loves you so! Now, y’all go tell the world about the LOVE of GOD, with tongue (singing, speaking, preaching) or pen!