-Collect for Saturdays, BCP p. 123
I love this time of year, when we approach Daylight Savings Time again. While we adjust clocks and speak of the event as a "time change," I long for it because of the light change. We human beings to to great lengths to extend the day when possible and to light the darkness when it ends.
In the service of Evening Prayer, we ask God to "Shed forth your unending day upon us who watch for you." Nightime, after all, can bring uncertainty, nameless fear, and anxiety. But in spiritual terms as well as chronological systems, the change we seek fits more into the category of light change than time change. We do not necessarily want to wish away the hours between dusk and dawn; we simply want to navigate those hours without fear.
The request in our prayers for "unending day" speaks of the eternal. We need to be reminded that God remains with us always, in darkness and in light. We need to be reminded that the power of God cannot be vanquished or even diminished by forces pressuring us here on earth. So we long not for unending physical light, but a constant awareness that God is here.
God created our souls to experience the eternal, even in the midst of the temporal. When we ask for God's "unending day," we are seeking the strength to weather life's challenges and to help others see light in darkness. We don't want longer days to give us more time; we want them so we can experience more light. If we can practice focusing on the external over the temporal during Lent and all of life's seasons, we live in God's unending day. And we lead those around us to more than a time change --to a light change.
Lord Jesus Christ, be our light in the darkness.
-From Disciples on the Way by Carol Mead
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