The Nights Preceding The Solstices

It was sometime in May when I visited Paris. (My advise - do not go there alone/single. You will be tempted to have one of the opposite gender by your side). I unpacked, informed some friends I had arrived, watched some movies then took a nap. I woke up refreshed at about 7pm, had dinner and decided to go to sleep against my course the next day. Next thing, I received a call from my friends asking me to hang out with them.

"It is late", I responded, eyeing the soft, comfortable bed in my hotel room.

"The day has just begun, nobody goes to bed by 7:30 in Paris during this season", they replied.

I drew aside the drapes in my room. Lo and behold, the sun was up like 3pm in Nigeria. That is how it was till about 11pm that day/night. As I woke up late the next morning, I simply muttered, “This is the real meaning of longer days, shorter nights”.

It was sometime in November when I visited Aberdeen. I woke up early to catch the 8:30 bus. By 7:30am, I was done with all preparations. I stepped outside hoping to get a glimpse of the area around me. To my surprise, it was as black as night – 12 midnight in Nigeria. I went back to my room to take a nap since it was still night to me. To cut the long story short, I missed the bus and went late to class. I told myself, “My geography teacher never really explained the concept of longer nights, shorter days”.

Geography/astronomy has the different seasons, and the Solstices in some cultures are considered to start, separate or fall in the middle of the seasons. These Solstices are marked by different lengths of days and nights.

In life we experience different seasons, and we have the “nights” as part of them. The night in the context represents periods of adversity, trials, disappointments, despair, overwhelming confusion, uncertainties, obscurity or when you feel God is silent. I don’t know if you have passed through one of these or if you are going through one.

The days/nights preceding the Solstices taught me that though they are composed of nights, the nights associated with each day was of a different length. Bringing this to life, you might go through a situation in 2 months which took someone else 5 years to pass through. Similarly, you might face a situation for 1 year, which took someone else 3 months to go through. An example is of 2 friends who applied for jobs within the same organization and were both successful. One had to wait one month before she was called to start, the other had to wait for a year before she started. Imagine if you were in the shoes of the one who had to wait one year. Won’t you have felt inadequate, hopeless or as though what you were believing God for won’t come to pass?

Yes, in life, our nights have different lengths. The time you have to wait will be different from when someone else would have to wait, so do not compare. In some cases it might appear that the other person did not wait, because everything seemed to have happened so fast. You never know. What is sure is that “as long as the earth remains, there will be day and night” [Genesis 8:22]. No matter the length of your night, you will surely see the day. Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning [Psalm 30:5]. And you can be sure that God, who neither sleeps nor slumbers, is working all through the night in your favour. If He seems silent to you, do not lose hope for He says, “I will watch quietly from My dwelling place…” [Isaiah 18:4] yet working for your good. If you have to wait, I pray God gives you the grace and strength to wait on Him. God has made everything beautiful for its own time.

Related Devotionals From The Heart Of  A Loving Father – Working All Through The Night and I look On From My Dwelling Place.