Here Comes the Sun -- Thank God!

1 Morning has broken like the first morning,
 blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
 Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
 Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!

3 Ours is the sunlight! Ours is the morning
 born of the one light Eden saw play!
 Praise with elation, praise every morning,
 God's recreation of the new day!

Morning Has Broken Voices United 409

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right...

Here Comes the Sun -- The Beatles

It has seemed like a long Winter but the days are lengthening. Three weeks today there will be an equal number of light and dark hours as we arrive at the Spring or Vernal equinox a word which means equal hours. Of course it isn't the Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, but you get the picture.



I find that my spirit rises as the days get longer and through the ages religious folk have been keen observers of the heavens as an aspect of the spiritual life and relationship with the Creator. Judaism sets holy days according to the moon, and Christian Easter is dated according to the vernal equinox and moon phase. Despite the Galileo debacle the Roman Catholic church has employed astronomers for centuries and still does.



Sun Temple -- Mesa Verde

We know that aboriginal peoples on different continents have also been keen observers of seasons and skies. Several years ago I attended an Earth-Care conference at a Presbyterian centre in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It was an excellent event and we stayed on for a few days of vacation. We travelled to the southwest, to the area called the Four Corners. Our goal was Mesa Verde, and the ancient Pueblo ruins there, including the cliff caves.

It was a remarkably spiritual experience to walk amidst  those ruins of a complex community which was mysteriously abandoned 700 years ago. Part of the excavations atop the mesa are of what has been termed the Sun Temple and the four tower-like elements of the complex which may have been used for observation of the rise or set of celestial bodies known to be sacred to the Pueblo Indians. While there is a lot of educated guess-work here the Sun Temple appears to represent the most comprehensive prehistoric astronomical observatory yet uncovered. Cool.

So vitamin-D deprived folks, live with hope as the sunlight strengthens and daylight hours extend. As the hymn says, each new day is God's re-creation.



Mesa Verde in Winter