Signs and Seasons

Friday in the Third Week of Lent

It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord,

   and to sing praises to your Name, O Most High;

To tell of your loving-kindness early in the morning

   and of your faithfulness in the night season.

Psalm 92:1-2

It is still dark as I prepare for morning prayer, thanks in part to daylight savings and how we keep time. The moon shimmers through a break in the clouds and several stars are still visible. It might be the beginning of night rather than the end. 

Earlier in the day big billowing clouds scuttled across a brilliant blue sky. I think of creation, how God first created light, then the sky, and then placed the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. To be signs of seasons, days, and years.

Time belongs to God. We count it, measure it, but it is creation that sets it in motion. Our lives are pulled by the movement of the moon, the sun, the rotating earth. I might short myself on sleep, or fill my time with busyness, or think there are not enough hours in the day. I might contemplate the clouds, or take a walk under the stars, or revel in God’s creation. Regardless of how I choose to be in God’s creation, I abide within it.

Outside my window I can hear the birds begin their morning song. I lift my voice as well, opening my lips to praise the One whose faithfulness reaches from the morning to noonday and through the night season to the morning once again.



Photo Credits: Anne E. Kitch