"It has been a scary time. Days have gotten shorter and shorter. At first we thought that it was just our imagination but then we watched carefully and soon we realized that it was a real trend. Not only were the days getting shorter but the weather was growing colder too. Where would it end? Will the daylight hours disappear completely? Will it grow so cold that I will not be able to unfold my wings at all anymore? Will I be perched on this branch, in the dark, cold and shivering until the bitter end takes me?"

The birds are still now. There is no song of joy in the early dawn. They are filled with fear and apprehension about what lies ahead. But today that will start to change. Today is the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. Today we start a new cycle of hope.   

There are other dates on the calendar that we celebrate, Thanks Giving, Christmas and New Years but these are human constructs, dates arbitrarily chosen by a few men to represent human events. Today is God's Holy Day. Today is the day that the earth has reached that point in its orbit when the north pole tilts farthest away from the sun and lies in complete 24 hour darkness. Today is the day that the south pole is in perpetual light. It is a day that has been celebrated on this earth for billions of years. Long before humans came on the scene, plants and animals found hope and courage in the lengthening of the days that is now upon us.   

Thus it is that today marks a new beginning. For mother, who is approaching her departure from this earthly plane it is symbolic. A reminder that everywhere we look God's word as written in his creation. Throughout the cosmos God speaks of cyclical patterns. Every ending brings with it a new beginning. Stars explode just to leave behind a dust cloud that coalesces into yet another star system with planets for life to evolve. Galaxies spiral around their galactic center. Planets revolve around their suns. Leaves fall only to appear again in the spring. Trees dye only to decompose and form the soil in which their offspring can flourish. Rain drops fall only to be lifted by the heat of the sun back into the heavens where they can form new clouds.   

It is said that whenever a door closes, God opens another. Indeed God's design has made it so. Life IS. Although, like the cold bird clutching to its branch on a long winter's night, we are sometimes frightened for it seems that life comes to an end when we die, in God's grand design of the earth and the heavens it is written that e=mc², nothing is ever lost, it is just transmuted into a new form.   

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, God calls a butterfly!   

On a beam of light,  
Thomas       

For more information on this wonderful event and why it happens go to

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040621.html  
http://www.astro.uu.nl/~strous/AA/en/antwoorden/zonpositie.html  
http://www.uwm.edu/~kahl/CoVis/Seasons/