Unsettling Advent 2024, Day 22
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
This year, December 21 at 4:21 am EST marked the winter solstice, where the 23.5-degree tilt of the Earth’s axis puts the Northern Hemisphere as far away from the sun as it is all year. In cities such as Barrow, Alaska, and Nuuk, Greenland, and Longyearbyen, Norway, the sun does not even rise above the horizon for weeks during the winter period (a long year indeed!). Something unnoticeable to us happens on December 22, though.
The Earth begins its move toward the spring equinox, where the Earth appears perpendicular to the sun’s rays directly overhead, and we are no longer so far separated from the warming rays. This process of “leaning into” the sun continues until the summer solstice where we are as close to the sun as possible. It is not a noticeable process, but a long slow one, highlighted by the recognition of more light in the evenings or more warmth in the sun’s rays.
This Advent season, many of us feel off-kilter and unbalanced; our world has tilted into a season of darkness and cold. Perhaps we have experienced a loss this year, and we feel untethered and drifting. Maybe a new diagnosis leaves us feeling unbalanced and unstable as we enter the new year. We might be reeling from upheaval at work or uneasy about the polarized political discourse in our country. The circumstances around us may be unsettling. Yes, at this time of year, some of us feel far away from not only the sun but also the Son.
The promise of Christmas is this, though: at the bleakest time of year (for much of the world’s population), we remember a baby that was born to be our light and our warmth. As the verse above reminds us, Jesus’s love is enough to overcome even the cosmic movement of the Earth in its orbit. We may feel a long away from the shine, but Paul reminds us here that nothing on Earth or in the heavens will ever separate us from the love of God through Jesus. We may not have the sunshine, but we will have the light of our Savior to warm and sustain us.
It is no surprise, then, that the spring equinox, where the Earth and sun are in alignment again, is so closely tied to the Easter season. The babe was sent to be one to make the off-kilter stable again, to make the path straight and the road firm, and to rebalance the light and the dark. In our unsettled Advent, we have a hope that we are on solid ground because of Jesus Christ’s steadfast love for us.
Sarah Blackwell is a contributing writer at Word&Way and a graduate of the Gardner-Webb School of Divinity. She is an adjunct instructor in the Religion and Philosophy Department at Wingate University in Wingate, North Carolina, and a D.Min. student at McAfee School of Theology. Her intergenerational faith formation book, God is Here, is available through Amazon and other online book retailers. Follow her writings at www.proximitytolove.org.