Have you ever noticed how light and darkness are almost always pitted against each other? We see this in the Christian scriptures throughout the season of Advent: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it.” (John 1:5). Or “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.” (John 8:12).
And then there are those common phrases, “Light up the darkness, let your light shine.” Or “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” These phrases have created a subconscious narrative where we almost always think of light as good and darkness as bad, something evil, or unwanted. This all affects how we interact with the world around us. We might plug a nightlight in in our bedroom or have streetlights on a darker street. But this binary also causes more problematic issues such as a bias against people with darker skin colors. It also contributes to fearing the dark, thinking how dangerous it can be outside after the sun goes down.
But what if we stopped thinking about light and dark as a binary. What if we recognized that these two things need each other and actually naturally co-exist. We might take the starry night sky, for example. Without the darkness, we can’t see the stars. They are there during the day, but we cannot see them because there is too much light.
Throughout the month of December, Nourished will be reimagining our understanding of darkness and the binary that exists between light and dark in series called, “Starry Nights.” Pulling from a book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, we’ll explore the idea that light and dark co-exist in balance, not opposition. In our Centering gatherings, we will consider how darkness can be a sacred space to connect with the divine, and we will celebrate the darkness by going star gazing and recognizing the Winter Solstice. An Advent Devotional and calendar from Nourished are forthcoming. Stay tuned to our social media for more information or contact me at kristina@lovelylane.org. Let’s enjoy these starry nights together!
-Pastor Kristina Roth-Klinck