The Christian calendar was naturally developed for the northern hemisphere. The birth of Christ, the light of the world, being celebrated at the darkest time; Lent during the ‘hungry months’ when last years crops were all eaten; Easter as new life comes to birth in the natural world.
Humanity has always believed that the eternal truths are reflected in our natural world, often very imperfectly, but nevertheless there as pointers to those who wish to see. What I’d like to suggest as we approach Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit, is that we are called to be part of the process. We are called to bloom and to create the seeds that may well appear to die in the earth for a time but in fact will be there to create new life in the coming year.
Not all life is spring time and celebration – but that is all the more reason to welcome and enjoy the good times when they come. And not all life is autumn and despair but it is often from those hard times that new life will come.
Alone you can’t really celebrate, and alone it is hard to survive, but together we do survive and together we can celebrate.