A couple of weeks ago we began daylight savings time. We moved our clocks ahead one hour. It creates evenings because we shift the hours of light to later in the day. It means that at first we may have to awaken in darkness until the sunlight on the earth extends itself, but it gives us those long early summer evenings when we can be outside until after nine and still see our way about. We may lose a little sleep when this change of time first happens, but most people seem to adjust quickly and enjoy the light that comes with the new time scheme.
Baxter seems disconcerted by daylight savings time. As we know, he is a creature of habit, and his habits have to adjust with the change of time. I think this runs counter to his biological clock at first and his psychological equilibrium. While he gets his breakfast an hour earlier on daylight savings time Sunday, the interval between breakfast and dinner is the same length of time, but it looks differently with the extended daylight. There’s no evening twilight dinner for Baxter during daylight savings time. Perhaps he wonders why I can’t keep shrinking the period between meals, until his life becomes one continuous feeding frenzy. Whatever he thinks, Baxter gets confused and uncertain about what’s happening when the time change first occurs.
Christ saves the light for us. He doesn’t change any time measurements, but rather He becomes the source and measure of light for our lives. This is what He won for us at Easter. He overcame darkness at its root in all its forms of sin and death. Seen in the light of faith in the Risen Lord, sin is now forgiven and its damning effects reconciled by healing the separations and divisions it creates in our relationships - our relationships with ourselves, each other, all creation, and our God. Seen in the light of faith in the Risen Lord, death appears differently. It is not a dead end but a passage wayto new life. The grief and loss we feel are meant to lead us forward as believer’s in eternal life to find a deeper meaning in what we experience.
In the light of the resurrection, we come to appreciate and acknowledge the mystery that undergirds all that we think, feel and do in life. Its character is Love, unconquerable and unending, Divine Love which transforms our thinking into understanding, our feelings into reflections of its manifestations, and our actions into service. This loving mystery is the source of our hope, for it transforms all of our relationships into a great communion of life. We see ourselves as God’s children. We see each other as saints in communion with God. We see creation as God’s handiwork. In Christ’s resurrection, we see God differently, as the powerful, loving, Fatherly mystery embedded in all the relationships that make up our lives, shaping them to be loving, and carrying them into eternity to be with Him forever.
Like Baxter, living with the extra light may confuse us at first. We too are creatures of habit, and what we expect from life often gets stuck in shadows where we can’t see a way out. This Easter, look to Christ to extend the light by which we live.
