By Joel Pontius, assistant professor of sustainability and environmental education
Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 (NRSV)
I am moved by light. Sometimes, I’ll drop everything and awkwardly half-run outside to experience heavy amber beams or be immersed in turquoise/black winds. You know the moments when God’s enduring, abundant love has surfaced.
Live gratefully, for God’s love endures forever. God has given us light!
Jesus chose light as one way to communicate his identity, which makes sense because it is as nuanced metaphorically as it is literally. Light, like our Creator, is among the finest purveyors of color, creativity, contrast, transformation and regeneration. This power continually (re)creates us all in Christ.
Today we celebrate the spring equinox, the time when northern hemisphere places spin into a half-year-long season of light. Let’s embrace this abundant gift today, with a few points of reflection:
- What experiences help you feel loved by God? When will you next seek out God’s love in this way?
- What is coming alive in your life/bringing you hope in this new season of light?
- What is ending/coming to a close in your life?
- What/who are you grateful for in your place and community? (Share with them…especially if they are trees or turtles.
Here’s an equinox poem for everyone.
Sipping on Light
Your black mug
is river-glazed
blue.
This lavender rim
plated with amber-eyed snowy owls,
cottonwood leaves, damselfly wings, loving acceptance.
We can’t get a grip
on these concentric handles –
the ice flows are slick as muck.
But as you pour
from this heart of yours
we sip on miraculous light.
Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 (NRSV)
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!
2Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
19Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
20This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.
21I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
23This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
26Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.
28You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.
29O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.