Sights and Insights
Devotion for Dec. 22, 2020
Summer and winter, springtime and harvest
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love
— “Great is Thy Faithfulness” ELW #733, verse 2
Winter is here! This year the winter solstice falls on Dec. 21, marking the beginning of winter. We have already had our first snow, so we are ready to feel ourselves to be in depths of winter. What images does winter bring to mind for you? This time of year, we often celebrate images of sleigh rides and hot cider and the beauty of the snow. Yet there is also the flip side, of the challenges of the cold weather, ice and snow, particularly as the winter wears on. Winter often conjures up images of death or dormancy, of a time when nothing grows. Only a few plants show their colors; most are drab. The days are short, though once winter begins that are in fact growing longer each day. Winter is a time of contrasts and different perspectives. Each of us picks up on different signs and parts of the winter reality. I have one son who loves the cold weather and another that wishes it never went below 70 degrees.
Most of our images of winter are tied to the places that we have lived. New Jersey is far enough north to have a significant winter. When I lived near the equator there was virtually no difference from one day to the next throughout the entire year. Time glided by without much external changes to mark its passage, so being technically winter time had little practical effect. Biblical references to winter reflect a Mediterranean climate where winter brought storms and colder weather, but not the deep cold of farther north.
I can’t say that I love winter, but I certainly missed it when we didn’t have it. Every day being hot was fine with me, but it was not the same as summer. We did not have the long evenings that I love about summertime. More than that, I could never keep track of time. Without the signs of changing seasons, every day was the same. There was much that was pleasant in that, but there was no sense of looking forward to what was coming, whether the warmth of spring or the changing leaves of the fall or the nights huddled inside while it snowed. There is a drama to the continually changing seasons that I did not appreciate until I was in a place that did not have it.
There is something to having the highs and lows, the long days and short days. It can help be a reminder of God present with us in all circumstances, in the summer and winter and all times in between. Whatever the images are that come to your mind when you think of winter, God is there in the joys and struggles of those times.