חֲנוּכָּה chanukkah (khan-ook-kaw')
1. initiation, i.e. consecration
2. Dedicate: To begin using something new.
We have an opportunity this week to experience light in the midst of darkness. We prepared the ground last spring, planted and watched it through summer, gleaned some wheat to sustain us until the harvest came in the fall, then that harvest is what sustains us through the winter.
For some of us this past growing season, there was a little fruit and for others sour grapes. And so we live on in this state of believing "this is just my lot in life." Maybe this is your lot. But that's because you want it to be that way. Abba has a different reality for you to live in -- if you CHOOSE to do so.
There is an opportunity right now, however, to make a decision that can drastically change your life. Dedicating the Tabernacle meant it was now open to receive His people into His presence. How dark it must have been to live with no light in the sanctuary for so many years. How difficult it must have been to wake up each and every day in that state. Lifeless.
But, in the midst of the coldness and seeming lifelessness right now, there is life. It's just hidden. Although a leafless tree may in fact be dead, it is likely still very much alive. Just dormant and incapable of producing fruit -- but not dead.
So what can you do?
Go out in the cold and start working the ground. It will be cold and the wind may cut you in half, but know there is life deep within you. Not the fake kind of life that props up our illusion of success, but the kind that causes your Creator to look upon you and say to your face, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and enter into My rest."
As we saw above, Hanukkah means to dedicate, to begin using something new.
This week Abba is asking you to dedicate His Tabernacle -- that's you. Begin using your life in a new way. Instead of continuing on with no light inside to illuminate the dark corners of your life, perhaps you can press just one olive to gain maybe a drop of oil to produce just enough light to see the cobwebs and dirt that has collected in those corners. And who knows, that small flame could be enough to light the wilderness on fire.