Mighty, mighty acolyte

A darling girl in our church, Colleen, served as acolyte last Sunday.

The major duties of the acolyte are:

• At the beginning of worship, light the altar candle.

• At the end of worship, carry the flame from the altar candle down the center aisle.

The main tool for these duties is something that the internet has taught me is called a Candelighter (and here I was all prepared for the device to have a weird name) that also features a little cup that acts as a snuffer. A wick runs through the long handle of the Candlelighter; you push a little handle to feed wick to the end of the tool.

The wick burns down quickly, so you have to keep pushing the handle up, or it won't stay lit.

This past weekend, Colleen exhibited notable courage in the face of severe lighting and snuffing challenges.

First of all, she had to light the candle blind. Since her last tour of duty, the candle has melted enough to develop quite a divot around its wick ...

... so the acolyte has to lower the flame below the top rim of the candle to reach the wick. Colleen's not tall enough to see over that rim. She could only see the top of the flame from the candle after it was lit. Hence, she had to light blind.

Conversely, as the service was concluding, Colleen also had to light the Candlelighter blind. Meaning that she had to lower the wick of the Candlelighter where she figured the flame must be and then raise the Candlelighter to see whether its wick has caught. She had to dip in there a few times before she had her Candlelighter's wick going.

Then came the snuffing.

Colleen found that the candle's divot wouldn't let her lower the snuffing cup enough to do its job. Little streams of air snuck in under the edge of the cup and kept the flame alive. She made one, two, three attempts. Finally, she had to press the cup down on top of the candle with extra firmness ...

... until finally she pulled it up and saw wispy smoke that meant a successful snuffing.

Only by then, the wick of the Candlelighter was also extinguished. Remember, it burns down quickly.

Collen pushed up the handle in hopes that there was enough spark on the end of the wick to bloom into flame, but alas, it was not to be.

The pastor smiled and waved Colleen on down the aisle. She did so with a bit of a hitch in her smile, but with her head held high. Hey, that flame is just symbolic after all. It was a nice reminder that the true light of Christ burns within.

Someone (maybe it will be me) needs to take that divoted candle in hand and shave off the rim until the wick is once again standing in the clear. To each of us who didn't think to do that yet, I say: Ya Goof!