With a flick of the fingers, friction occurs and a spark leaps from the match to the tinder. A small flame burns the edges of the kindling and grows ever wider, fueled by wood and air.
Heat builds, and soon the kindling is licked by dancing orange-red tongues of fire.
Higher and wider it spreads, until eventually, all the wood is consumed. The spark has become a fire. Nearly 2,000 years ago, beginning with an event that we celebrate this day, God struck a match in Palestine. At first, just a few people in that small corner of the world were touched and warmed by the fire. But the fire spread quickly beyond Jerusalem and Judea.