For the last 6 months we have been enjoying the increase in daylight, leading up to the solstice of summer on Wednesday of last week. Sunlight fills our sky and lifts our spirits, and during nighttime hours, we see tiny flickers of light as fireflies dart about. It reminds me of the time I took a drive late at night and, beginning to tire, pulled my car into a wooded area to rest. When I awoke I was surrounded by thousands of glittering yellowish lights of fireflies on the trees and bushes. The entire area was aglow, engulfed in their light, flickering in and out, as if attached to some big electric switch someplace in the woods. It was an experience that I will not soon forget.
Summer’s symbols are all around us: the welcome splash of cool rain on our face, the morning mist, the dew on the grass in the hours of dawn, the colors of the rainbow after a storm, twilight’s glow of the setting sun. This week’s hymn, “Healing River of the Spirit” (Ruth Duck 1996) calls to mind a symbol of our Baptism: water. The sacred springs of new life wind their way through the quagmire of our sin and darkness, purifying and cleansing as they flow.
This weekend, we celebrate the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, one who used the great symbols of our Baptism to cleanse and purify. His message of repentance set the tone and paved the way for the birth of the Christ, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Fire and water: both symbols of the Spirit, which cancel each other out in the earthly realm, but work as a team in the spiritual one to rid us of the stain of iniquity and sin. John the Baptist was the forerunner of the Spirit and the Light, readying the way for the One who would purify humanity, who would bring God’s light into a world darkened by evil.
As we begin this summer season, let us use its gifts of water and light to quench our thirsty spirits and revive our weary souls.
