The Sun Rises Earlier Every Day

I'm no Creationist. I don't agree with Intelligent Design either - it feels too much like God as a Professor Branestawm type of inventor, constantly poking a screwdriver into the works to ensure that the right kind of thing arrives - producing a rabbit rather than a vampire, jet-propelled bunny-wunny, a human instead of a Dalek.

I guess my way of seeing it is that this universe is imbued with God's nature - not such that God inhabits it, so much as there is a lot of the nature of the artist in it. Clues and fragments of God's personality scattered around the place, the rise of consciousness and our ability to use what we assume is reason coming from the Creator being personal and reasonable. I actually do believe in a Goldilocks universe, and if anyone ever proved there were multiple universes I'll presume that therefore it's a Goldilocks multiverse.

And as rational beings, we turn that round and create models and stories to explain and expound. And so some genius decided to celebrate Christmas at the Winter Solstice.

It's now, in the weeks after Christmas, when that logic plays out (for we in the Northern hemisphere - you people of southern climes can go and practice the boomerang, have a barbie or go and fight some orcs, if I'm boring you with my Northron sensibilities).

The days are actually getting colder, not warmer. The Met Office is covering the weather pages with warnings of yellow rain and - worse - yellow snow (Burton - can you check if I've got this right?). This week's Big Wind is forecast to be the biggest Big Wind since - at the very least - the last Big Wind. Or even the Big Wind before that.

And yet the sun rises earlier every day. It sets later. Although for wildlife the days are getting harder, as the berries run out and the next fruit will be in the summer, yet each of those days will be longer.

It's a metaphor that somebody has coded into our calendar for us. Every time we think things are getter harder - the days are getting longer. When the darkest time is reached, the sun starts to rise earlier. When the ground is hard as iron, and there's no fruitfulness in the fields, it's time to start thinking about sowing seeds. When everything is dead and cold, and they have been for what seems line forever, spring is coming.