Days that Will Live in Infamy

Today is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  When I was younger, I knew more people who could still remember where they were when the attack happened.  Now, most of those people have died.  This event has receded into history, one of those events that seem like the far-distant past.

I talk to many people today who feel like we're living in a time of great threat between terrorists abroad, terrorists at home, and the huge number of guns in this country.  A day like today is a good time to think about events of the past and to remind ourselves that we've rarely had a world that felt safe.

The powers of darkness always swirl around us, looking for ways to take over.  Our job is to continue to keep our lamps burning brightly, to stock the oil so that we're not caught short.  Our job is to tell the alternate narrative, that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.

Here is my favorite picture from the second Sunday in Advent that reminds us of the power of light: