When Daylight Saving Time ended last week, we were greeted to a suddenly early darkness. My family gathers around the dinner table and keeps wondering why we’re eating in the middle of the night, only to discover it’s merely 6:00.
The coming winter (and the surprising snow!) often arrives with sudden force, it shocks us; awake to the reality — a reality we know. And make a habit of forgetting. Letting go. For the joy of the sun, rebirth, new life.
The church has long matched this feeling of our world to our relationship to the divine. To our common story. And even our purpose. So that we can see something in both.
The darkness is growing; it progresses, feels oppressive. But rather than hibernate until spring, we’re invited into the experience of it as present, not forever. We are alive now, called to live and grow, with others, sharing, preparing for longer days.