Sunday, November 6 issued in the switch away from Daylight Saving Time (DST). It meant everyone turned back clocks, adjusted schedules, calendars, and struggled with “internal biorhythms.” And for deer hunters who on Saturday, November 5 began deer hunting? If the normal wake up time was 6 a.m.—for deer season it might be 4:30 a.m. But on November 6? Thanks to the DST switch, what had been 4:30 a.m. would feel like 3:30 a.m.
And then this: The light. The morning light would feel wrong, too. Because what bleary eyes were accustomed to at the old 6 a.m. would not be what they’d see at the new clock-changed time. And the evening light? Same story. What your body would tell you would be end of day kind of fading light at 5:15 p.m. became the fading light of 4:15 p.m., so there were big switches on both ends of the day. For most people it was also a big shift for how bodies, minds, emotions, and psyches felt.
And then this: bodies that don’t know the moment to wake from sleep, still must wake, and then must keep awake. But things that shift us out of our normal pattern affect us, and make us stop, and make us ask ourselves, “Take a look. Look again. Did I set the clock back correctly, or did I somehow move the hands forward? Did I wake up too early? Did I wake up too late?”
There is another season also, where things shift, move away from what the pattern has been, and can make us ask questions, pause, stop. For many Christian churches, the church year calendar now shows the season of Advent approaching. It too can make us see light from different angles, at different times. And can also dizzy us as we try to adjust to a new way of looking at the calendar, and at God. For Christians, Advent is a season of waiting for the new beginning that has already occurred in the birth of Jesus, but which has a “not yet fully arrived” aspect. And what we look forward to is not one more late December occasion for presents under a tree, but to a time we cannot yet see—a time that still is to come, but has already had its beginning, its “advent.” And both the time now and the time to come are times of God’s continuing fulfillment of goodness and mercy.
But oh boy, is it ever easy to lose sight of that fulfillment that God is doing, or the goodness and mercy. Life can be like the convergence of deer season and a change in Daylight Saving Time. What had appeared a life filled with light can suddenly appear to be very dark; and it can bring a time not being able to imagine any light of God’s presence, goodness, or mercy.
But just as whatever time the clock says, we scan the horizon trusting light will begin to appear, we can scan the world for light of comfort to be seen. And just as the great Spirit of God stirs creation’s new dawn each day, so too are stirred gentle hands of compassion, gentle words of encouragement, strong prayers for strength, quiet listening ears of friends, and the quiet footfall of God in Jesus who walks with us in the dark and in the light, no matter what time the clock says it is. As you walk through life, may your eyes awaken to seeing the presence of the light of God.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Pastor Kris Garey, Trinity Lutheran Church, Hovland.
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