Christ our koselig

I’ve been reading Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel Sunset Song prior to going to see the film. It follows the cycle of the seasons in Kinraddie, a fictional community south of Aberdeen in the first two decades of the 20^th century - ploughing, seed-time, harvest, winter.

‘What’s your favourite season?’ said my daughter Bethany recently. I shared a memory with her of the time I went to St Andrews as a young man, a member of a Scripture Union summer mission team, working with holidaying children. It was the first time in my life I had felt included by a group of people my own age.

I remember one Friday, in late-evening twilight, walking with a couple of others beside the sea south east of the Maiden Rock as the waves fingered the shoreline and a chilly breeze blew off the water. It occurred to me how melancholy the place might have appeared, but I sensed only the beauty and peacefulness of it due to the sense of belonging which companionship brought me.

For some of us – perhaps for all of us at some times in our lives – how we experience things out-with ourselves depends on our inner mood.

Those of us who are naturally depressive may feel saddened by every one of the seasons, either because they contrast so markedly with our emotions (the joy and life of spring and summer at variance with our dejection) or because they emphasise and underline our mood (the dying and chill of autumn and winter reinforces our melancholy.)

Our dog Mollie - enjoying Koselig

My personal challenge at this time of year is to find a way of entering into the joy of winter. Our friends in Northern Europe have a strategy for making the most of cold, dark days.  For the Norwegians, it’s the quest for koselig – used both as noun and verb. The word has a root meaning of ‘cosiness’ but round it has gathered a cluster of meaning – warmth, joy, companionship, security.

Winter in the Scandinavian countries is for some a time to chill with family and close friends, sharing long, thoughtful meals with good crack in warm rooms, and, outside, to enjoy the exhilarating beauty of cold landscapes, frozen lakes.

It seems rather idealistic – how do those who are short of money, or bereaved, of elderly find their way to koselig?

But there’s a lesson for us. The central scene of Sunset Song, the wedding of Chris Guthrie and Ewan Tavendale takes place in a snowstorm at Hogmanay, when the inhabitants of Kilraddie congregate at the croft of Blaewearie to celebrate and find koselig in a meal and a ceilidh which lasts till midnight.

But the trouble is that we are often too busy to make space for koselig. Just as we want fresh fruit in the supermarkets all year round, so it seems we want every season to be harvest, and work ceaselessly to be productive – at work, at home, even in church.

We forget that our souls, too, have their seasons. That there can be no harvest without fallow times, without seasons of ploughing and sowing. There is a time to be busy, a time to rest, a time to think and reflect, a time for koselig. A time to draw near to God, and to heal our souls at the warmth of God’s fire.

Let’s seek this winter, whether we are introverts or extroverts, whether we’re naturally sunny or depressive, let’s seek an inclusive koselig, one in which we do not forget those for whom winter is the hardest time. Let’s rejoice together in the gift of the season!

But if I’m one of those people whose view of reality is coloured by mood, how can I welcome winter? Something deeper than simply the discovery of friendship gave me that gift of wholeness beside the Maiden Rock.

A preacher in Sunset Song looked back across centuries of Kinraddie seasons. ‘He told of the rising of Christ, a pin-prick of the cosmic light far off in Palestine, the light that crept and wavered and did not die, the light that would yet shine as the sun over all the world, not least the howes and hills of Scotland.’

Jesus Christ walked the rhythm of the seasons in Galilee, walked fearlessly through the seed-time of death and the harvest of resurrection, so that we can embrace and live and relish each of the seasons throughout the year, and each of the long seasons our life takes us through.

The reason I sensed the shorelines peace at St Andrews, the fundamental reason for all my joy and delight is that I have found, as we can all find, security and identity in Christ. And so, Bethany, an honest answer – any season where I sense Christ’s koselig is my favourite!

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 10th December 2015)