The clock counts down, a new year, a new day, a new beginning. The tiny boy's eyes enlarge with rapture. 

The light, the sound, the promise: Is this what he will call to mind for subsequent new years to come. Why do we cheer? Why do we fill the sky of light? Is it an innate response to the reality that we serve a God who redeems and restores, who makes all things new? 

And so as the crowd begins to surge, counting down the last few minutes of the year that has passed away, I close my eyes and breathe a prayer, for the First Light to come and make His presence known among us.