Duncan’s Reflections: Winter Days and Summer Nights
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Praise the Lord from the earth … lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars (Ps. 148:7-9).
Fifty years ago my wife and I first came to Beacon, bringing groups of High School students as well as our daughters. Back then we were given the camp names of Duncan & Hines, perhaps because Duncan Hines was someone’s favourite cake mix!
Since then, we’ve come in every season and every kind of weather. We always saw the hand of God in the exquisite beauty of the rocks and trees, bare or covered in snow, the sunny days when time stood still, and the powerful storms that made the trees sing.
I’ll never forget our X-country ski hikes in those early years. Together with a group of 8 students, we’d blaze a trail through deep snow. Up the rocky hills, along the train tracks, down the hill, and onto the 3rd lake. (Beacon had no snowmobiles in those days.) The first skier would make the initial cut in the deep snow, with the 2nd and 3rd skiers also working hard. We’d take turns. When we took a break, there was a profound stillness, as deep snow is so effective in absorbing sound.
Another indelible memory is a summer evening at one of the adult camps. John and I decided to go for a late paddle under the stars. Unknown to us, that was the night God had decided to place in the sky above the lake an enormous, scintillating blue-green band - the Northern Lights. What an awesome, unique display!
Northern Lights only appear every decade or so, when the Sun is in the active part of its cycle. Fortunately, it's reaching its peak activity in the year 2025. So, this summer and the next two might give us some remarkable displays. Often, however, they don't come out until near midnight. (You can see them well from up the ridge on the other side of the railway crossing. So, there’s no need to go out on the lake at night, as we did!)
In Psalm 104, the poet considers all these wonderful aspects of nature – brilliant light, clouds, winds, even deep snow – as God’s clothes and chariot: “Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendour and majesty. The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment … He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind” (Ps. 104:1-2). That’s why we give “eyes to creation” at Beacon, as well as “hearts to God.”
So far, I’ve only reflected on winter and summer at Beacon. Spring and Fall have many other special things to show us. But that’s for another time. Meanwhile, as we reflect on the many things we’ve seen at Beacon, we can just repeat the final verse of the Psalms. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” (Ps. 150:6).