Tonight, Christians throughout the world will begin celebrating the birth of Jesus, the Christ. The celebration, like so many religious and spiritual celebrations, is replete with images of light coming into the world. Light overcoming darkness is an apt metaphor for the struggle for good in our world. Light reveals those things we would rather keep hidden, the things of which we are ashamed, the mistakes we have made, the times when our courage has faltered. There is something good and redeeming in recognizing those moments when we have been less that our best selves, when we wish we had held our values closer than the ease of a particular course of action. The only real evil lies in denying the possibility of error, in those times when we are so full of ourselves that we can’t even admit the possibility that we could have done better. We’ve seen that kind of evil in our lives, and at times it can seem like there is more of that evil than of the good that is unashamed in the light. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, however, serve to remind us through what Christians call the Incarnation that our essence is in fact good, not evil, and that we live in a world that is full of hope. That’s a message we need every day of the year!