December 21, 2009
The first time I tuned into the Winter Solstice was my first winter in Canada. Living in the Alberta foothills that year, where the longing for a “White Christmas” was a moot point…it was a give.
The deeper yearning was for a return of the light. Two years later, having moved to the Saskatchewan prairie and experiencing the deathly frigid conditions of fourty below zero, the yearning for the light and warmth of Spring was even more acute. Now, living in moderate Oregon clime, the Solstice Event has less of an intense life threatening reality. The woodstove is burning. The gas furnace is a dependable backup. Temperatures are predicted to be above freezing tonight.

Two things come to mind. Perhaps they are related. Christian tradition, a primarily Northern Hemisphere telling of the story of Jesus has linked the birth of Jesus with the event of the Winter Solstice. This is the Summer Solstice for our brothers and sisters in the Southern Hemisphere!! Chile is harvesting tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers to ship to northern hemisphere markets. Mexico is harvesting asparagus shoots and shipping them north.

For me the meeting point of these realities is the realization that I am not the center of the universe. I see a very small slice of cosmic unfolding. The tilting of the earth, the orbit of the moon, the life/light giving reality of the sun brings me to a point of complete humility….It’s not about me. It’s about grace. Something bigger is going on.

I come closer to the writer of Genesis 1.14: And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,

This is doxology…praise. The writer is not quoting God. He is responding!!
…I am too!!