Winter solstice

A friend recommended a book of Advent reflections. Called Darkling it's about valuing the dark times. It's Christian but not overtly or over the top so. Inspired by it I wrote this post for the Zac's Facebook page.

Before the light there was dark

It’s been a dark year.  On a worldwide scale wars and battles against all sorts of injustice continue to be waged; in post-Covid Brexit Britain we see people going hungry, cold and struggling to make ends meet; and for many individuals personally the year has brought illness, grief, loss, marital problems, and all the associated emotional stress.

Yes, it’s been a dark year.

I don’t know about you but when I’m in a dark place I want to rush to put on the light. I want quick answers, rapid relief, instant improvement. I don’t want to have to hang around waiting for God to act. I want him to bring me into the light and I want it to happen now.

God after all is light, that’s what the bible tells us. Jesus the light of the world. But does that mean God isn’t in the dark with us?

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep . . .and God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.”

So before the start of creation, before the Big Bang, there was darkness. And God was in it. In the darkest of darkness God was there.

We’re told other times in the Old Testament that God is to be found in a cloud of darkness but it’s not where we expect to find him is it? When we look for God –maybe I should say, when I look for God – I look for bright light, for clarity, for white. Not dark. I don’t look in the dark. 

Physically we very rarely find ourselves in complete darkness. But if we did and we spent some time there we would find that our eyes would adjust and we would be surprised how much it would be possible to see.

When we are in emotional darkness we need not worry that God has left us, that the God who is light is incapable of being in a miry pit with us. If we wait in the still quiet dark we will find that not only is God there with us, but he is holding us, and breathing words of love over us. He is where we are and he understands.

So rather than resist the dark maybe we need to embrace it. To learn from it. Not rush to be rid of it but to use our time in it to find out new things about ourselves and God. It may not be easy or painless: dark isn’t necessarily. But it will always be part of our lives.

The light of the world was born into a dark stable. Even in the trenches of despair John tells us the light shines; the light of redemption and forgiveness shines in us. It only takes a tiny crack to let it out.

Today, as we celebrate the winter solstice, we’ll be heading into the longest night of the year. After that the nights will start to shorten and the days lengthen. After darkness there will be light. It’s seasonal, cyclical, and it’s hopeful.

Before the light there was dark. 

After the dark there was light.