O Gracious Light

I delight in the beauty, the simplicity of sunsets.  Ever since my days of youth at the lake house in Minnesota, I have celebrated the intricacies of nature's design in the setting of the sun, signaling an end of day, the beginning of night, the hope for tomorrow.

Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth: The Lord is his name.  Amos 5:8

The salvific work of Christ has borne light out of the darkness of sinfulness so that man may dwell in His presence.  And yet, in the darkness, in the midst of depravity, suffering, wandering, and doubt, the Lord has discipled.

The act of succumbing to sleep is among the most humble acts of surrender.  And it is done daily.  A loss of conscious control, a quieting of the mind, heart, and body.  Yet, during nightfall, in this darkness, the soul awakens.

I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night.  I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall.  Psalm 16:7-8

I must daily be willing to sleep, to rest, in the Lord amidst the darkness.  For if I shall fail to do so, my restless soul will struggle to survive as I am assailed on all sides.  In fact, when I am plagued in darkness, I shall actively seek submission in His rest.

C.S. Lewis offers this: I answer that suffering is not good in itself.  What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads. The Problem of Pain

And so, the setting of the sun, the darkness of tribulations, the bleakness of the unknown, shall not overcome me as I choose to rest, finding joy in submission with my pained, tired body.  Shall I not remember that this too shall pass; that the holy, gracious light of the Lord will arise just as surely as the sun shall rise in the morn?

O gracious light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of Life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.  Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church