Tag: Seasons

Counting on … Lent 24

7th April 2025

“Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.”

Jeremiah 8:7

The birds – indeed all creatures – know intuitively how to live in a harmonious way with the seasons. Because they are in tune with nature, they are also in tune with God. However we humans – just as in Jeremiah’s day – are often not in tune with God; we fail to understand that God wants us to live in tune with nature, with its seasons, its limitations and its joys. 

Sadly many people are completely unaware of the changing seasons, because they enclose themselves in an artificial world where you can eat strawberries and avocados all year round, where you rely on heating and air con for a constant T-shirt-wearing  temperature, where you seal yourself away from adverse weather in a door to door car service, and where the light from screens not the sun tells you the time of day.

Yet there can be so many opportunities for us to explore the seasons in local parks, nature reserves, in our gardens, via the local farmers’ market, down by a river or by the sea.

At the Solstice 

21st December 2024 

And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. Genesis 1:14-15

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation: 

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives: 

May we live together in peace.

A reading from Isaiah 45: 7-8

I form light and create darkness,
    I make weal and create woe;
    I the Lord do all these things.

Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and let the skies rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation may spring up,
    and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also;
    I the Lord have created it.

A response:

A turning point in the year is reached, 

and as the longest night reaches its peak

and the shortest day 

recedes to its briefest span –

so the sun’s year turns again.

The dark draws back 

its day time occupation, 

and gradually reframes itself once more 

as night.

But before we rush on, 

let’s take time to embrace the dark 

that gives us rest – and time to pause – 

with long evenings when books and loved ones 

can calm our souls.

And before we rush on, 

let’s take time to ponder how 

the Advent days of expectant waiting 

have kept pace with the darker nights – 

and how even now 

the mornings’s dawn still holds off 

as if waiting for that greater light.

And those of us who have walked in darkness 

will see that light, the dawning 

of the day that ushers in new beginnings, 

new life, the sun reborn, 

the birth of the Christ child.

As the sun-shaped days take hold, 

it is the evenings that first draw back 

releasing the season’s extra light,

the assurance of the Son’s salvation.

From now on the days will lengthen, 

extending once more the working day. 

As we look up to the skies and down to the earth, 

let righteousness sprout forth. 

As seasons turn and new years begin, 

together we shall journey on into God’s kingdom.

May God bless us in the darkness.

May God bless us in the light.

May God bless us in each season.

May God bless us with salvation in the birth of the Son.

Amen.

The changing seasons

7th September 2024

And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years – Genesis 1:14

A reading from Isaiah 55: 9-11

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

A response: change happens

A drop of water

falls.

Drip.

Another.

Drip.

Drip, drop – more fall. 

The drip becomes a trickle;

Drip, drip, drop -.

the trickle a stream.

The stream becomes a river,

a down pour, a torrent –

surge, rush, roar.


A flood begins with just a drip. 


Snow.

Sun on snow. 

A little warmth,

a little melting.

A moment of easing,

    loosening, 

         a shifting of weight.

                 gathering momentum –

 And whoosh! 

A million tonnes of speeding snow.


An avalanche begins with just one flake.


A swallow

perched on the telephone wire,

testers slightly. 

Now or later?

One swallow, two.

Another, three. Sway.

Now or later?

Four, six; 

Eight, ten. Now?

Gather, check, sense the air.

Now? Now!

Up, and away, 

wings beat, compass set,  

off – 

fare well.


Where one or two are gathered, 

change begins.

May God bless our endeavours.

Counting on … day 33

2nd February 2024

Take time to celebrate. Today is the feast of Candlemas – why not eat your supper by candle light?

Candlemas is also a solar feast marking the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. In many parts of the world, this is celebrated with pancakes – round like the sun or if rolled up, rather candle-like!

New Year

30th December 2023

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:22

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation: 

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives: 

May we live together in peace.

A reading – Ecclesiastes 3:1-4,8

For everything there is a season, 

and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

Creator God,

As one year follows another, 

open our hearts and minds 

to hear your word and know your will.

There is a time wait and a time to act:

Give us patience when we must wait 

and courage when we must act.

There is a time to buy and a time to make do:

Help us buy wisely thinking of the welfare of others, 

and not be snared by the wiles of advertising.

There is a time to mend and a time to recycle:

Enable our hands to mend with dexterity 

and to recycle with equal care.

There is a time to invest and a time to divest:

May our money support renewable resourcing, 

and not damage the environment. 

There is a time to grow and time to leave fallow:

 May our use of the land follow the seasons, 

enabling regeneration and new growth.

There is a time renew and a time to replace:

Give us the humility to dismantle systems that are harmful,

and the wisdom to create anew those that are beneficial. 

There is a time to restore and a time to rewild:

Help us to be generous in sharing both land and water, 

making space for the natural world with whom we are as one.

There is a time for fighting and a time for making peace:

Strengthen us to be fight for justice 

and equip us to be peace makers.

Creator God,

As one year follows another, 

open our hearts and minds 

to hear your word and know your will.

Amen.

And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. Genesis 1:14-15