“Seek him who made the Pleiades and
Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning . . .” BCP 115
This is part of one of the options to
begin Evening Prayer and it is probably my favorite beginning. The
whole verse is taken from Amos 5:8, and it goes on to proclaim the
wondrous power and glory of the Lord.
It's always hard for me to pick a
favorite anything, because I tend to like a lot of different things
in different ways and at different times. Things like, “What's
your favorite food?” or, “What's your favorite Beatles song?”
or, “What's your favorite place?” are always problematic for me
because it depends . . . what time of year is it? What's my mood at
the time? What's happening in the world? All of these factor into
making the choice difficult.
“Here comes the sun,” is up there
on that list, but that plays better after a long, cold winter than in
June or July. Cannon Beach, Oregon is also up there, and probably
very near the top; but driving through the Cascade Mountains after
two years of seeing nothing higher than the Sears Tower is also good.
And pie . . . well, it's always pie – blueberry cream cheese to be
exact.
“What's your favorite scripture
verse?” is one of those questions. Where am I spiritually? What's
going on? What day is it? All this and more play into that
decision. But this one from Evening Prayer is at the top of the
list.
In times of difficulty, in times of
stress, in times when I'm overly tired and want to just lie down and
stop, there's this verse. Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the morning.
This is a reminder that God is not only
the Lord of everything, but that God is all around. It's a reminder
to continually seek him, because he wills to be found. It's a
reminder that the deep darkness – whether the dark of night or the
dark night of our soul – God will turn that darkness into the light
of morning. It may take longer than we want or expect, but it will
happen.
And for me, in this time of unrest and
pestilence, that is something I desperately need to hold onto.
God is everywhere. Let us seek him who
made the Pleiades and Orion, and let us live in hope that the deep
darkness will turn to the light of morning.
Be hopeful,
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