“You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you have made summer and winter.” Psalm 74:17

Summer Solstice

This weekend marks the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. From this point on the days begin to get shorter. The solstice gets its name from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). The earth reaches its northernmost point and stands still momentarily basking it its own magnificence, before taking a bow and beginning its long journey southward. It is not the sun that moves, but the earth that tilts and rotates. Without the earth’s tilt we would have no seasons. It is like the ebb and flow of life with God at the center. We are the ones who tilt away, and move about from time to time. But through it all, God is always there, never changing, emanating light and warmth and love. Throughout the seasons of our lives God is ever present. The long warm and lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are stretched out before us, so let’s get out and enjoy every one of them, remembering to keep God at our center as we come together weekly to worship and to give thanks for God’s unchanging love.