LOOK: Old Woman and Boy with Candles by Peter Paul Rubens
LISTEN: “The Night Is Long (But Not for Long)” by Steve Thorngate, on After the Longest Night (2018) (sung by Libby Thorngate)
Our nights are long, but they’re getting shorter
Ever since you crossed over our border.
Our candles burn while we wait for dawn.
The night is long, but not for long.Our hope has come. Our despair is buried.
The light of the world is the child of Mary.
God in our bones, God who knows our song.
The night is long, but not for long.It seems so hard, harder than it should be,
To see the world the way it could be,
To press right on when hope is almost gone.
The night is long, but not for long.But this world is good, good enough for Jesus
To come and live a life that frees us,
To bend toward right everything that’s wrong.
The night is long, but not for long.Our nights are long, but they’re getting shorter.
These growing days show a new order.
Winter will pass. Spring will come along.
The night is long, but not for long.
Art & Theology 