“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” ~ John 1:4-5

Winter solstice happened this week. In our northern hemisphere, that’s the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It’s the official beginning of winter.

This year, the solstice coincided with a significant astronomical event, a planetary conjunction involving Jupiter and Saturn. A conjunction is when two planets appear close to one another in the night sky, and if those two planets are Jupiter and Saturn, two of the brightest bodies in the solar system, then it’s called a “Great Conjunction.”

This was no ordinary Great Conjunction, however, because Jupiter and Saturn seemed so incredibly close.  According to NASA, it’s been 400 years since they were this close (separated by only 0.1 degree) and nearly 800 years since they were this close together at night time, allowing people around the world to witness their magnificent conjunction.

The last time this happened, the astronomer Galileo was pointing his new invention, the telescope, at the two gas giants. But you didn’t need a telescope to see the show this week! Saturn and Jupiter were right next to each other, two brilliant balls of light, and it was spectacular. If it felt like there was a message behind this astronomical event, maybe there was.

Scientists and scholars have posited that perhaps a Great Conjunction was what the Magi saw as the “Christmas Star” that took them to Bethlehem two thousand years ago. This was an idea first proposed by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the 1600s. 

As I sat with my binoculars at the end of my driveway on a cold December night this week, I pondered the question, “If I was in darkness (and this being 2020, I kind of am), would I follow this star?” I thought about the Magi (who may have been Persian or Babylonian astrologers) and what their journey may have been like, crossing the known world to follow this beautiful, mysterious light.

I thought about how the solstice, the longest night of the year, is actually a hopeful time…because now the days are getting longer. The world is getting brighter. 

And I thought about Christmas, which celebrates the literal birth of indestructible hope in the person of a vulnerable infant on a cold night so long ago.  

Is the Great Conjunction the “star of Bethlehem” that led the three wise men to Jesus Christ? I don’t know…but it makes me hopeful as I sing:

 “Star of wonder, star of night,

Star with royal beauty bright.

Westward leading, still proceeding,

Guide us with thy perfect light.”