I have a repetitive bad habit which rears it’s head annually - I never remember to begin burning my advent candle on December 1st! I guiltily spend a few hours burning it down during the first week of December - willing it to burn more quickly so that I will be up to date, caught up with the time as the fast pace of December whirrs ahead.

And I wonder, this year, if my tardy attitude towards my advent candle does rather reflect my attitude towards Advent. Traditionally a time of fasting as the Christian waits for Christ to return, Advent reorients our hearts towards the eternal nature of Jesus; Immanuel, God with us, ascended to heaven and promised to come again.

Too often, I find I am easily distracted - there are more urgent tasks to turn to, more exciting prayers to pray. What does it mean to sit down, be still, and wait for Christ? Perhaps I will learn some more stillness as I watch my candle burn down more slowly than I find comfortable. It is in the waiting, in the professing of my frustration with the slowness of time, and in the small flickering and smouldering wick that I find my answer - in the waiting, a small flame reminds us of the gift of Christ, the light that shines in the darkness, which the darkness will never extinguish.