White — The Unveiled Light

Smoke Rise is a unique family of faith. From the outside, it can look a little messy with people of many political opinions, philosophical outlooks, and theological nuances gathered together in one body. If we all stood in a circle and spoke at once, it might sound like instrumentalists in an orchestra warming up, notes clashing and wandering, not yet resolved. But as you listen longer, the dissonance gives way to harmony. What seemed chaotic becomes symphonic.

 

This what happens when the light of Christ passes through our differences: it refracts into color and then gathers again into wholeness. White light is not the absence of color, but the joining of all colors in perfect balance. In the same way, the purer light of God’s love does not erase our individuality. A great light gathers us together into a family of faith that is fuller, truer, and more complete.

 

Advent’s white is not sterile or cold. It is radiant with relationships born of a long patience that binds us together in grace. Advent is the fulfillment of every hue that came before: the hidden black, the tender gray, the unseen violet. When we learn to see one another through the lens of divine love, the world grows brighter, not with uniformity, but with unity.