“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1
Around now, day and night come level. For a moment the light and the dark are shared out evenly, and then the balance tips. From here the evenings draw in, the lamps go on earlier, and the year starts turning towards winter.
Most of us feel that turn somewhere. Some love it: the first fire, the first proper jumper, the smell of leaves on Church Walk. For others the shortening days are hard, and the dark comes with a weight all of its own.
Ecclesiastes doesn’t pretend every season is easy. It lists them honestly: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Life has its changes of light, and we don’t get to choose them all.
But the Psalmist adds something the calendar can’t: “the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (Psalm 139:12). The seasons change. God doesn’t. Whatever time of year it is in your own life this week — bright, darkening, or somewhere in between — you are not further from God in the dark than you were in the light.
A prayer for the week
God of every season,
as the light shortens and the year turns,
keep us steady.
Be with those who love this time of year,
and with those who dread it.
When our own days grow dark,
remind us that the darkness is not dark to you,
and that no season lasts for ever
except your love.
Amen.
Sunday services at St Mary’s: 9.30am, with coffee afterwards, and Encounter at 11.15am. Whoever you are, you’re welcome here.
