Winter solstice.  Today, around 4:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, the Winter Solstice begins.  From this point, the days will no longer get shorter, but longer, gradually lengthening until, six months hence, its counterpart, the Summer Solstice, appears.

     Though we in the Northern Hemisphere remember the Solstice in the shadow of Christmas impending and, as a result sometimes overlook it and what it means, we can in many ways bring the two celebrations together.  Christmas is about coming, the coming of God to earth.  The Solstice is about coming, too, the coming of Spring.  Though it seems to be the end of the light, it's actually its beginning   Though it leaves autumn behind, it ushers in the spring.  We wander through long and dark nights, yes, but we also move, move ever so imperceptibly, to the greater light to come.


     In the fullness of time, wrote Paul, in the fullness of time Jesus came.  It's a rhythm, it's a heartbeat.  It's the endless pulsing of the wisdom of God.  As we trek through these darker days and hours even as we look to the light of Christmas a few days hence, we come to understand that the darkness we see is but the light of song, the illuminating song which underlies and empowers all creation, a foretaste and reflection of divine favor upon all that exists.

     Remember the Solstice, remember Christmas.  Remember the light of God.