December 22, Sunday night, is the winter solstice or the longest night of the year for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun will rise at 7:48 and set in the afternoon at 4:43 giving us 8 hours 55 minutes and 46 seconds of sunlight. That means a full two thirds of our 24 hour day will be in darkness. On Monday the day will be longer by .04 seconds. Not much of an addition but .04 seconds marks the turn when nights get shorter and days get longer.
How do you feel about these long nights when darkness is the steady companion and daylight seems a fickle friend? For some people this time of year brings on depression because their whole body is effected by the lack of sunlight and their mood gets heavy with the darkness. For some of us darkness brings a kind of peace and a sense of deepening, a spiritual hibernation when we can burrow into our souls and discover what God is holding for us there.
The scriptures at this time of year are filled with angels visiting. Angels come in night skies, they come in desert places and dark stables and they come in dreams as people slumber and sleep. Angels find us in the night and in the depth of darkness insight comes. This is true on an allegorical level, a spiritual level and in a practical human level. Revelation often comes when we are pushed to a place of needing to slow down, (think illness) when protection is stripped away (think times of personal angst) when supports are pulled out (think grief). It is in these dark times of the soul that we learn lessons of strength and courage and perseverance. We don’t want to go to those dark places but as surely as the earth moves around the sun so do those times come to each of us. From my own experience and from what others have told me, we are often most open to God in those times of mystic vulnerability.
So dear readers, my prayer for you is that this weekend you can go into the long dark night and see what dream God is holding for you.
