Solstice & Advent

Today we have exactly 8 hours and 57 minutes of daylight, and the sun will set at 4:48. Guess how much more daylight we will get tomorrow (2 seconds). And the day after tomorrow? (7 seconds more.) While the return of longer days will be imperceptible for a while, on this shortest day of the year we celebrate the return of light, shining in the darkness. 

Listen to these words from Isaiah 9:2
The people who had been living in darkness
    have seen a great light.
The light of life has shined on those who dwelt
    in the shadowy darkness. 

We are people living in shadowy darkness in more ways than one. As we move past this shortest day of the year, we may be eager to get through winter to springtime. Jan Richardson warns us to not rush out of darkness when she says:

“…if we lean too quickly toward the light, we miss seeing one of the greatest gifts this season has to offer us: that the deepest darkness is the place where God comes to us. In the womb, in the night, in the dreaming; when we are lost, when our world has come undone, when we cannot see the next step on the path; in all the darkness that attends our life, whether hopeful darkness or horrendous, God meets us. God’s first priority is not to do away with the dark but to be present to us in it.”

Advent teaches us how to wait - to sit in the dark without rushing toward easy light. The Winter Solstice reminds us that the dark itself is holy, that rest and stillness are part of creation’s wisdom, and that light returns not with fanfare but quietly, almost imperceptibly. Both light and darkness are ingredients for life, and love gives meaning and tenderness. 

As you take time to wander and wonder, pay attention to both the world around you and what arises within you. Notice the way the incarnate and loving presence of Christ is here in mysterious ways - in darkness and light, in the Cosmos, and in you.