Gifts of the Night – Sunday, January 27, 1980
A dynamic and optimistic executive was once asked if he ever got discouraged. His quick reply was a pearl of insight. He said, “I don’t get discouraged, but I do get tired. The Lord surely knew what He was doing when He put a night between two days.”
The opportunity to rest, relax and renew ourselves is one of the many gifts the night brings to us. We gain a different perspective on our world as the shadows lengthen and the soft and muted sun slips below the horizon. The day is finished and nature rests and invites us to do the same.
It is at night when, as the poet Longfellow wrote, ” . . . the cares that infest the day shall fold their tents. . . and. . . silently steal away.”1
Most of us do not experience the beauty and comfort of night as our forefathers did. For convenience and for safety’s sake we light our city streets and roads. Our blinking neon signs and sweeping beacons push back the night as far as possible.
“Light pollution” as it has been termed, blocks out the blackness of the sky and hides the stars. We run our cars and businesses and seem to be pretending it’s still day. Perhaps it makes us more efficient, but still we pay the price of never feeling what the poet Louis Untermeyer felt when he wrote of, ” . . . Night, brimming with silence and the stars, while earth, bathed in this holy light, is seen without its scars.”2
There is much to be done each day in our demanding world. We would not want to turn back the clock nor turn out the lights but neither would we wish to lose the gifts of night that people of a simpler society accepted as part of their birthright.
We may not have the black star-spangled skies, but we can find a softly lighted room to rest our eyes, collect our thoughts and count our blessings at the end of every day.
Many of us may not have crickets chirping in our windows, but we can create a cozy atmosphere within the walls of our own home.
A friendly campfire is a fine way to spend an evening, but so is an hour with a few close friends and the television turned off.
Closeness and quiet—gifts of the night. Offered freely, waiting to be taken.
Even for the busiest of us these are moments well spent, for they help us keep our perspective, create warm memories, and give us strength to rise refreshed and face the demands of another day.
1 “The Day is Done” in The Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Heritage Press, New York, 1943, p. 158.
2 “The Wine of Night” in Challenge, Louis Untermeyer, The Century Company, New York, 1914, p. 34.
“The Spoken Word” heard over KSL and CBS from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah, January 27, 1980 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Eastern Time Copyright 1980 Bonneville Productions
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January 27, 1980
Broadcast Number 2,632