Luminaries available to light up Seeley Lake Christmas Eve

SEELEY LAKE - As part of the movement to "Light up Seeley Lake" coupled with Mountain Lakes Presbyterian Church's mission to bring joy to the community during the COVID pandemic, Mountain Lakes' Worship Ministry Team is offering free luminary packets for community members to take home and display Christmas Eve.

Starting Dec. 20, the luminary packets will be available in a basket on the front porch of the Church, 3292 Highway 83 North. Each packet includes five luminary bags, tea lights and kitty litter for weight. Worship Ministry Team member Cheri Thompson encourages families to decorate the bags or simply display them on their property and light up Seeley Lake on Christmas Eve.

Mountain Lakes currently is in the middle of the liturgical season of Advent. Advent lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas. For Christian denominations that follow the liturgical calendar, Advent is celebrated as a time of anticipation for Christ's birth and bringing light into the darkness.

During the season of Advent, Mountain Lakes has electronic candles outside the Church that can be seen from Highway 83. It is a symbol for light in the community and Light overcoming darkness.

Mountain Lakes Pastor Reverend Carrie Benton further explained that hundreds and hundreds of years ago, it was decided to celebrate Christmas, which is not believed to be Christ's actual birthday, during the darkest time of the year.

"Christ coming as the Light of the world, this [decision] made a lot of symbolic, theological sense," Benton said. "We continue to need that reminder because sometimes the darkness seems so heavy."

Benton recognized that Christmas is generally a hard time of year for people in general. However, 2020 has compounded the hardships on so many levels.

"The darkness seems so much more palpable, heavy, daunting, than it has in years past," Benton said.

It is an annual tradition on Christmas Eve for Mountain Lakes to line their parking lot with 100 luminaries. Because Christmas Eve services will not look the same this year, Thompson said the Worship Ministry Team wanted to expand this to the community and reach those who may be struggling with darkness.

"We needed to get creative, think outside the box and look at what can we do and how is this an opportunity rather than an obstacle," said Benton. "To share the luminaries with as many people in the community as we can, especially to shut-ins and anyone battling darkness in their lives. We want these to be available so that they can light this light and it can be a reminder that darkness does not get to have the last word."

Benton is forever amazed how God works in communities. While the Worship Ministry Team was thinking of how to spread light in the community, the Seeley Lake Community Foundation launched a project #lightingupSeeleyLake." By getting a grant from the Montana Community Foundation as part of the Reimaging Rural series, the Foundation offered Christmas lights for those along Highway 83 to decorate and light up the town.

"Then we realized that God is part of all of this and it is really cool," Benton said acknowledging that both projects are independent from one another. "It is a reminder that darkness doesn't get to have the last word – it is not the end of the story, the Light of the world is. Any way that we can get light, figuratively and literally, out into the community, we want to do that."

Community members are encouraged to stop by the Church and pick up a luminary packet starting after church on Dec. 20. If the basket is empty, please call Thompson 677-2309. Mountain Lakes is also partnering with the Senior Center Meals on Wheels program and the Veterans and Families of Seeley Lake group to help get the word out and help distribute materials. If you would like a luminary packet and are unable to pick one up, please call the church to request one, 677-3575.

The community is also invited to join Mountain Lakes for a Service of Light on Dec. 21 at 6:30 p.m. The service will be held in-person and online.Details will be posted on the Mountain Lakes Presbyterian Church Facebook page.