Reclaiming the Dark (Hem)

 

 

If I said, “The darkness will definitely hide me; the light will become night around me,” even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you Nighttime would shine bright as day, because darkness is the same as light to you!  -Psalm 139:10-11

    

      All my favorite moments of this season happen at night: candlelight services, watching from my window, long after midnight, when the only movement on the street is falling snow; but most of all I love to sit with all the lights in the house off, except for the Christmas tree. There is something about the stillness and the quiet, but more than that, there is something about the simplicity, the sensory deprivation, that is restorative after running from place to place to place, with flashing lights and blaring musak.

     And yet in this season we have so many images focused on light. Some of the ones I hear (and use) most frequently are ‘the gathering dawn,’ the light of Love,’ ‘Shining Hope.’ Even the Bible images this season around light: “The true light that shines on all people was coming into the world.” But let’s not move too quickly past the darkness, also rich with meaning.  There is something about this season of darkness before the light, something that invites the hush of our voices, the slowing of our steps, drawing us into listening and observing, helping us move towards the mystery of it all.

     I grew up in a space where the darkness of night was a welcome experience: stars were visible, the night sky was not saturated by the strange shades of light pollution that color the night sky of my urban home now, and most importantly, I was safe in the night. For some darkness brings with it terror or anguish, I know. I do not claim darkness as an unequivical good, only as a space where God is, in the ambiguity of all that is encompassed in the darkness. So we seek God in the darkness and in the light, we listen for the whispers of Divine Love in our darkness and we listen for Her shouts as the darkness gives birth to light.

 

 

Eveningland by Hem 

 

 

     Today’s song is called Eveningland. It has no lyrics, but for me the music evokes a falling darkness full of beauty and mystery. Darkness like the cool protection of a deep cave, or like the formative nurture of a womb, darkness that hugs us close on quite nights, darkness that shades unseen mysteries for just a little longer, darkness in which our dreams ripen to sweetness.  May we seek this kind of darkness, rich with peace and rest, growth and preparation for what is yet to be born.

“I believe that Christ came not to dispel the darkness but to teach us to dwell with integrity, compassion and love in the midst of ambiguity.  The one who grew in the fertile darkness of Mary’s womb knew that darkness is not evil of itself. Rather it can become the tending place in which our longings for healing, justice and peace grow and come to birth.”  -Jan Richardson

For those who dread the dark we lift a prayer of protection and peace. For those who long for restoration and stillness, lead us, we pray, into the shadows of safety and spaces of preparation from which we may be reborn.

 

-Lindsey

 

 

 

 

**This week, we'll take YOUR suggestions for what songs help you Seed the Hope or Resist the Sleep. Post a YouTube link with your thoughts and we'll re-post them all on our Saturday post.**