I went down to the cat cemetery this afternoon to decorate for Christmas on this last day of fall. At 10:19 tonight winter arrives. Tomorrow the day will be slightly longer and the night slightly shorter as the northern part our world begins to lean toward the sun. Tomorrow the sun will rise and set slightly higher in the sky. This day is one of the two great days of December, yet we pay it little attention. But our ancestors did. They built bonfires to thank their god for the return of the sun to the sky and the lengthening of the day, foretelling the eventual return of spring and verdant crops. They feared that if they did not thank him for this favor, their god might withhold this miracle.
Today we know the physics behind the seasons and so do not celebrate the occasion. We do not fear that God is going to change the physics of the universe to punish us and so we more than likely ignore it. But wouldn’t it be appropriate to at least recognize this significant night and praise God’s supreme intelligence in creating the mechanics of the universe that supports our survival.
And let us not feel superior to our illiterate ancestors. They might not have been right about why there were seasons, but they figured out the dates for the arrival of these seasons simply by observation of the sky. Could you have done that? Maybe we should say a prayer of thanks for their intelligence