Although only last week, Christmas seems quite far away. The supply of mince pies is low, and this year there was no Christmas cake nor log in our household to keep the Christmas momentum up. But maybe that is a good thing. After all, we are in a lull before the celebrations of the New Year and these are in a different register from those of Christmas.  At Christmas we celebrate the miracle that is the birth of Jesus, but also that of birth itself and of life. We give thanks for the gift of a child and the gift of procreation. Not only that, we also praise light. According to the Bible, “Jesus is the Light of the World”. This is beautifully recounted in Handel’s Messiah,  traditionally performed at Christmas time, in the Bass Aria “The People that walk in Darkness have seen a great Light”. In Christianity, light is a symbol for God. But a few days before the birth of Jesus it is the shortest day of the year and the winter …