So today, Monday 20 March, is the Spring Equinox. The day when the length of the day is 12 hours, exactly matching the length of the night. It feels like a watershed, a promise that things will get better as we emerge from the winter. A promise of longer and warmer days, reminding us of those balmy summer days from the past. And for those of us marking Lent, a reminder that Easter is approaching – that the light of the resurrection will soon come flooding in to obliterate the darkness.
That light will always conquer darkness is a physical fact. From time to time I find myself walking through our darkened church to lock up while carrying my bicycle light. It’s a graphic reminder that the darkness cannot prevail against the light – even a vast hall of darkness is defeated by a small bicycle torch. Christians understand that God’s light of love must inevitably prevail against the darkness of evil and hate, and the Equinox seems a good time to remember that. As Psalm 18 puts it:
It is you who light my lamp;
the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
This God—his way is perfect;
the promise of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
For who is God except the Lord?
And who is a rock besides our God?—
the God who girded me with strength,
and made my way safe.