Darkness Is no Void

Image by Jez Timms

“Let that day be darkness! …

Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds settle upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

That night—let thick darkness seize it! …” (Job 3, NRSV)

Darkness is not a void or an experience to be ignored. As we lean into the longest day of darkness, biblically speaking, Job resonates with me. When Job endures hardship after hardship, we do not find him tucked away in a cave waiting for winter to pass. Job does not ignore the darkness. Job stands frostbitten and naked in winter’s snare ready to share his loss and grief. What he encounters are close friends attempting to silence his darkness.

Elizabeth Dias writes, “Winter is a primal time of death and loss, and a time for grief. It reminds us that darkness, not only light, is part of the recurring rhythm of what it means to be human.”

For Job, I wonder, if what it mean to be human in his moments of loss was to claim the darkness. Job yelled, he expressed pain, and relentlessly defended his darkness. It isn’t until the conclusion of the book of Job that God and Job get to have a real heart-to-heart. I wonder if Job’s story would have been different if there weren’t so many individuals trying to pull him from a cyclical rhythm of life?

What if we allowed each other to be human in our human moments and feel the depths of every hue? And what if, instead of chastising as Job’s friends did to hurry up and find the light, we stayed and brought the hand warmers while we wait.

Winter is here and we will need each other in new ways this season. Let us not be fooled. Darkness is no void. It is a teacher and a part of being human lives here, too.

Blessed longest day of Darkness to you.