Summer Solstice
Friday, June 20, 2025 at 10:42 PM was the Summer Solstice, the longest day and shortest night of the year for those in the northern hemisphere.
According to the time-honored Farmer’s Almanac: The term “solstice” comes from the Latin words sol (Sun) and sistere (to stand still). At the solstice, the angle between the Sun’s rays and the plane of the Earth’s equator (called declination) appears to stand still. This phenomenon is most noticeable at the Arctic Circle where the Sun hugs the horizon for a continuous 24 hours, thus the term “Land of the Midnight Sun.”
The summer solstice has long been celebrated by cultures around the world: In Ancient Egypt, the summer solstice coincided with the rising of the Nile River. As it was crucial to predict this annual flooding, the Egyptian New Year began at this important solstice. In centuries past, the Irish would cut hazel branches on solstice eve to be used in searching for gold, water, and precious jewels. Many European cultures hold what are known as Midsummer celebrations at the solstice (https://www.farmersalmanac.com/midsummer), which include gatherings at Stonehenge (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge) and the lighting of bonfires on hilltops. (http://www.farmersalmanac.com)
I love the Summer Solstice. Even though I live in a place with an average temperature of “meltdown” this time of year, I like this point on the calendar for this reason: I enjoy long, long days ... and this is as long as they get.
I like being active. I don’t do idle very well. And I find it easier to do more the more daylight we have. In fact, I think I’d enjoy living in Alaska ... for about two weeks a year.
A friend once asked me if I wished I could stay awake all the time, or be someone who requires, gets and enjoys a lot of sleep. I told her if there was a pill I could take that would allow me to stay awake 24-7-365 and not need sleep, I’d order a lifetime supply. There are just so many things I want to do ….
Sleepless in Miami?
Half of you probably agree with me, and the other half think that’s weird. (Slackers!!) But for those who find my affinity for the daylight strange, I would have you note that the Bible’s on my side. Or better, I’m on the Bible’s side on this.
Consider just a few of the things Jesus had to say about light:
[Jesus said,] “We must work the works of him who sent me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” – John 9:4
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” – John 11:9-10
So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” – John 12:35-36
Of the biblical writers, the Apostle John says the most about light:
This is the message we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as he himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. – 1 John 1:5-7
Paul tells us:
[Y]ou were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. … [A]ll things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”
– Ephesians 5:7-14
James adds:
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. – James 1:17
So I love the long days, the extra daylight. I know that from now till the Winter Solstice, on or about December 21st, the days slide downhill, getting shorter and shorter … then rebound again and head toward the Summer Solstice.
Every year, the same pattern. From Solstice to Solstice, the days go from longer to shorter, back to longer, back to shorter and on and on. It’s like clockwork. No, it’s better than clockwork. Clocks eventually wear out and break down. The cycle of our days goes on and on into the indefinite future.
And that future, to coin a phrase, is bright. Bright as in 24-7-365, if those numbers have any meaning where I’m headed.
Bright Lights, BIG City
Describing the City of God, the New Jerusalem, John writes:
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. – Revelation 21:23-27
Take that, slackers, Goths and assorted other night crawlers. Nothing but unending day, uninterrupted light, the purest, cleanest, most radiant Light in the universe and beyond the universe. The Light that struck the original spark that made the universe come blazing into existence in the first place, in Genesis 1.
You know how that goes:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good …. – Genesis 1:1-4
From the Garden, where all was good, including the light, at least for a while … to the City, where it will be even better, and for always.
I can’t wait.
Kent
*****
“Summer Solstice,” Susan Ashton https://www.pandora.com/artist/lyrics/susan-ashton/susan-ashton/summer-solstice/TRJVJ3tzc54K7hk
*****
The Summer Solstice is also a great reminder of the orderliness and reliability of the Cosmos. We know that every year at this time the sun will be at its farthest northern position in relation to the earth. That’s why we have so much more daylight. Conversely, we know that on the Winter Solstice, on or about December 21st, it will be the shortest day and longest night for those of us in the northern hemisphere. We don’t have to worry about it, speculate as to whether or not it will happen this year, check with Vegas to see what odds they’re giving on whether or not it will come true this time. It’s about as sure a bet as you can get.
Every year, the same pattern. From Solstice to Solstice, the days go from longer to shorter, back to longer, back to shorter and on and on. It’s like clockwork. No, it’s better than clockwork. Clocks eventually wear out and break down. The cycle of our days goes on and on into the indefinite future.
Why is that? Why is the Cosmos so orderly, so well regulated, so predictable? Physicists and astronomers will talk in terms of natural laws, laws of physics and so on. Fine. I have no quarrel with that, or with them. But I would ask, as many, many others before me have asked in more sophisticated terms than I can:
Can you have laws without a law-giver? Can you have order without someone issuing orders?
G. K. Chesterton wrote of his own search for belief in something larger than himself: “The recurrences of the universe rose to the maddening rhythm of an incantation, and I began to see an idea.”
And further, why is it that the Cosmos is so exquisitely fine-tuned to allow us humans to be here, to ask these sorts of questions?
Dr. Stephen Hawking, in his book A Brief History of Time, articulates what is known as the Anthropic Principle. Simply stated, it just means that however you look at it, it certainly seems that the universe was designed to support human life.
Consider this:
1. The earth tilts at an angle of 23 degrees in relationship to the sun. If you altered that angle even slightly in either direction, the resulting changes in temperature would be so extreme that life as we know it could not exist.
2. If the moon were 50,000 miles away from the earth instead of 200,000 miles, the ocean tides would be so enormous that all the continents would be submerged, and even the mountains would erode.
3. If the ratio of carbon to oxygen in the atmosphere had been slightly different, none of us would be around to breathe it.
Dr. Hawking goes on: We all understand now that the universe is still expanding, and apparently the rate of its expansion is a very critical factor in understanding how the universe came into being. He writes:
If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million [that’s 1 over 100,000,000,000,000,000 – 1 with 17 zeroes after it], the universe would have re-collapsed before it ever reached its present size.
There are countless other examples:
the strength of the force of gravity
the exact balance between the positive and negative charges in the electron – all have to be just right for life to happen.
He asks: Why is the universe so uniform on such a large scale? Why does it look the same at all points of space and in all directions? ... This is like giving an exam to a number of students. If they all give exactly the same answers, you can be pretty sure they have communicated with each other.
What’s true on the infinite level is also true on the infinitesimal. Consider the DNA molecule – a twisted strand of chemicals that functions in every cell of your body like a coded message. DNA is the HQ of every cell in your body. It tells every cell what to do.
Dr. Charles Thaxton, in The Mystery of Life’s Origin, says: Every DNA molecule contains as much info as an average library. And every DNA molecule in your body contains the same, unique message – what makes you uniquely you, unlike anyone else in the universe. Even identical twins have different DNA. (That’s why DNA testing is such compelling evidence in the courtroom … usually.)
Your DNA sends exactly the same message to every cell in your body. How does it do it? How does a chemical compound send a message at all, much less the exact same message billions of times to very different cells?
Back to Dr. Hawking’s analogy again: This is like giving an exam to a number of students. If they all give exactly the same answers, you can be pretty sure they have communicated with each other.
Colossians 1:15-17: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. NIV
According to the time-honored Farmer’s Almanac: The term “solstice” comes from the Latin words sol (Sun) and sistere (to stand still). At the solstice, the angle between the Sun’s rays and the plane of the Earth’s equator (called declination) appears to stand still. This phenomenon is most noticeable at the Arctic Circle where the Sun hugs the horizon for a continuous 24 hours, thus the term “Land of the Midnight Sun.”
The summer solstice has long been celebrated by cultures around the world: In Ancient Egypt, the summer solstice coincided with the rising of the Nile River. As it was crucial to predict this annual flooding, the Egyptian New Year began at this important solstice. In centuries past, the Irish would cut hazel branches on solstice eve to be used in searching for gold, water, and precious jewels. Many European cultures hold what are known as Midsummer celebrations at the solstice (https://www.farmersalmanac.com/midsummer), which include gatherings at Stonehenge (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge) and the lighting of bonfires on hilltops. (http://www.farmersalmanac.com)
I love the Summer Solstice. Even though I live in a place with an average temperature of “meltdown” this time of year, I like this point on the calendar for this reason: I enjoy long, long days ... and this is as long as they get.
I like being active. I don’t do idle very well. And I find it easier to do more the more daylight we have. In fact, I think I’d enjoy living in Alaska ... for about two weeks a year.
A friend once asked me if I wished I could stay awake all the time, or be someone who requires, gets and enjoys a lot of sleep. I told her if there was a pill I could take that would allow me to stay awake 24-7-365 and not need sleep, I’d order a lifetime supply. There are just so many things I want to do ….
Sleepless in Miami?
Half of you probably agree with me, and the other half think that’s weird. (Slackers!!) But for those who find my affinity for the daylight strange, I would have you note that the Bible’s on my side. Or better, I’m on the Bible’s side on this.
Consider just a few of the things Jesus had to say about light:
[Jesus said,] “We must work the works of him who sent me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” – John 9:4
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” – John 11:9-10
So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” – John 12:35-36
Of the biblical writers, the Apostle John says the most about light:
This is the message we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as he himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. – 1 John 1:5-7
Paul tells us:
[Y]ou were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. … [A]ll things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”
– Ephesians 5:7-14
James adds:
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. – James 1:17
So I love the long days, the extra daylight. I know that from now till the Winter Solstice, on or about December 21st, the days slide downhill, getting shorter and shorter … then rebound again and head toward the Summer Solstice.
Every year, the same pattern. From Solstice to Solstice, the days go from longer to shorter, back to longer, back to shorter and on and on. It’s like clockwork. No, it’s better than clockwork. Clocks eventually wear out and break down. The cycle of our days goes on and on into the indefinite future.
And that future, to coin a phrase, is bright. Bright as in 24-7-365, if those numbers have any meaning where I’m headed.
Bright Lights, BIG City
Describing the City of God, the New Jerusalem, John writes:
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. – Revelation 21:23-27
Take that, slackers, Goths and assorted other night crawlers. Nothing but unending day, uninterrupted light, the purest, cleanest, most radiant Light in the universe and beyond the universe. The Light that struck the original spark that made the universe come blazing into existence in the first place, in Genesis 1.
You know how that goes:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good …. – Genesis 1:1-4
From the Garden, where all was good, including the light, at least for a while … to the City, where it will be even better, and for always.
I can’t wait.
Kent
*****
“Summer Solstice,” Susan Ashton https://www.pandora.com/artist/lyrics/susan-ashton/susan-ashton/summer-solstice/TRJVJ3tzc54K7hk
*****
The Summer Solstice is also a great reminder of the orderliness and reliability of the Cosmos. We know that every year at this time the sun will be at its farthest northern position in relation to the earth. That’s why we have so much more daylight. Conversely, we know that on the Winter Solstice, on or about December 21st, it will be the shortest day and longest night for those of us in the northern hemisphere. We don’t have to worry about it, speculate as to whether or not it will happen this year, check with Vegas to see what odds they’re giving on whether or not it will come true this time. It’s about as sure a bet as you can get.
Every year, the same pattern. From Solstice to Solstice, the days go from longer to shorter, back to longer, back to shorter and on and on. It’s like clockwork. No, it’s better than clockwork. Clocks eventually wear out and break down. The cycle of our days goes on and on into the indefinite future.
Why is that? Why is the Cosmos so orderly, so well regulated, so predictable? Physicists and astronomers will talk in terms of natural laws, laws of physics and so on. Fine. I have no quarrel with that, or with them. But I would ask, as many, many others before me have asked in more sophisticated terms than I can:
Can you have laws without a law-giver? Can you have order without someone issuing orders?
G. K. Chesterton wrote of his own search for belief in something larger than himself: “The recurrences of the universe rose to the maddening rhythm of an incantation, and I began to see an idea.”
And further, why is it that the Cosmos is so exquisitely fine-tuned to allow us humans to be here, to ask these sorts of questions?
Dr. Stephen Hawking, in his book A Brief History of Time, articulates what is known as the Anthropic Principle. Simply stated, it just means that however you look at it, it certainly seems that the universe was designed to support human life.
Consider this:
1. The earth tilts at an angle of 23 degrees in relationship to the sun. If you altered that angle even slightly in either direction, the resulting changes in temperature would be so extreme that life as we know it could not exist.
2. If the moon were 50,000 miles away from the earth instead of 200,000 miles, the ocean tides would be so enormous that all the continents would be submerged, and even the mountains would erode.
3. If the ratio of carbon to oxygen in the atmosphere had been slightly different, none of us would be around to breathe it.
Dr. Hawking goes on: We all understand now that the universe is still expanding, and apparently the rate of its expansion is a very critical factor in understanding how the universe came into being. He writes:
If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million [that’s 1 over 100,000,000,000,000,000 – 1 with 17 zeroes after it], the universe would have re-collapsed before it ever reached its present size.
There are countless other examples:
the strength of the force of gravity
the exact balance between the positive and negative charges in the electron – all have to be just right for life to happen.
He asks: Why is the universe so uniform on such a large scale? Why does it look the same at all points of space and in all directions? ... This is like giving an exam to a number of students. If they all give exactly the same answers, you can be pretty sure they have communicated with each other.
What’s true on the infinite level is also true on the infinitesimal. Consider the DNA molecule – a twisted strand of chemicals that functions in every cell of your body like a coded message. DNA is the HQ of every cell in your body. It tells every cell what to do.
Dr. Charles Thaxton, in The Mystery of Life’s Origin, says: Every DNA molecule contains as much info as an average library. And every DNA molecule in your body contains the same, unique message – what makes you uniquely you, unlike anyone else in the universe. Even identical twins have different DNA. (That’s why DNA testing is such compelling evidence in the courtroom … usually.)
Your DNA sends exactly the same message to every cell in your body. How does it do it? How does a chemical compound send a message at all, much less the exact same message billions of times to very different cells?
Back to Dr. Hawking’s analogy again: This is like giving an exam to a number of students. If they all give exactly the same answers, you can be pretty sure they have communicated with each other.
Colossians 1:15-17: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. NIV
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