Summer: Light

These days are the longest days of the year.  Technically, every day is just 24 hours.  But in mid-June we get a good 16 hours of daylight.  Contrast that with Christmas when we barely get 8 hours of daylight.  One of the reasons that December 25 was established as the date for Christmas is to remind us that, as the prophet writes, “people living in darkness have seen a great light.”  In the midst of our greatest darkness, Jesus comes as the light of the world.  From that point on daylight hours grow longer and longer until June 20 when we will experience the greatest amount of daylight.  

What started in a manger 2000 years ago has been growing.  That light has been dawning.  Summer is a symbol of the fullness and maturity of light.  In Revelation, John describes it this way: “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.”  The longest day of the year reminds us of the eternal day when darkness will be no more.