The Dawn Chorus: Greeting the Morning Light
Each year in the Northern Hemisphere, as the days get shorter and the nights get longer and colder, the season of Advent arrives. In the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we pray and light candles and tell the truth about a world full of shadows. We come face-to-face with the reality that our lives are shrouded in darkness: injustice, armed conflict, health scares, broken hearts, dashed hopes, strained relationships. And then we raise up our voices and sing straight into those shadows, calling on Jesus to come again with light and peace and “healing in his wings.” Even if only for a season, our song in the night pushes back against the darkness: “O come, O come, Emmanuel!”
“This is the storm before the calm,
The pain before the balm.
It’s the cold before the warm,
The tears before the song.
This is the dark before the dawn.”
Songbirds all around the world know a thing or two about singing into the dark. In the early hours of the morning, before the sun appears over the horizon, songbirds from robins and wrens to larks and nightingales begin a symphony that scientists call the “dawn chorus.” Humble and low, dawn choruses usually begin quietly in the dark with only a few voices. Soon the early birds are joined by others, and then others, until their song greets the morning light. Morning after morning, their song heralds the dawn. But why sing at all?
Birds sing for two main reasons: 1) to mark their territories, and 2) to attract other birds. Some scientists believe birds also sing for delight. That is, they sing simply because it gives them joy! The same is true for humans. When we sing with others, our brains release endorphins that reduce stress and increase feelings of gladness. So, singing together brings joy. But, obviously, birds can sing any time of day, so why do they wake so early, choosing the hours before dawn to break into song?
One theory is that the early morning shadows provide a cloak of protection, making it harder for predators to see them as they lift their voices. And so, in that deep blue space between darkness and light, their songs are louder, livelier, and more passionate. What if we thought of the shadows in our own lives in the same way …as a protective cloak, a kind of sanctuary as we do the slow, quiet work of bringing more hope into the world: praying, studying, connecting, organizing, building relationships, and doing the things that lift our spirits in praise? What if, like the chorus of songbirds, we woke up, clothed ourselves in our Creator’s Light, and lifted our voices to sing into the darkness that the “night is gone and the day is near” (Romans 13:12)?
Advent is the Church’s dawn chorus. The season starts in the silence, in the shadows, and looks to the Light. Each week we gather together to listen and sing straight into the deepening darkness, proclaiming that soon the night will give way to the day; winter will give way to spring; despair to hope; war to peace; grief to joy; violence to love. Awaiting the Messiah, we raise our voices knowing God will come again like the morning star in the east to show us the way (see Revelation 22:16).
That first Christmas, the earth was covered in darkness, desperate for the Light to break in. Humble and low, creation lifted its song. Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds in the fields, the angels on high, the magi from afar… each one added their voice to the song rising in the darkness: “Gloria, in excelsis deo” (“Glory to God in the Highest!”). Creation’s dawn chorus.
Like birds, Mary and Joseph and Jesus had to travel a long way, from one kind of home to another, vulnerable and brave, seeking safety and refuge, the night wrapped around them like a cloak of protection.
Like birds, they made a nest for Jesus out of straw and soft feathers. With the other animals there that night, the scene was a glimpse of the Peaceable Kingdom.
Like birds, the angels filled the skies over the shepherds and their flocks, singing for at least three reasons: 1) to clarify territory (all creation belongs to God); 2) to invite a relationship (God loves us all, and calls us to love God and one another); and 3) above all, to sing for its own sake… to sing for joy!
Like birds, the magi navigated by the stars, migrating at night on a journey of courageous love.
Like a bird, somewhere near the manger that night there must have been the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, sitting quietly up in the rafters, looking down on the One who comes to seek and serve and save.
This Advent, add your voice to the chorus of the dawn. Sing into the darkness the song of Hope’s coming, Peace’s rising, Joy’s springing, and Love’s awakening.
My Song in the Night (Traditional American Folk Hymn)
O Jesus my Savior, my song in the night,
Come to us with Thy tender love, my soul’s delight.
Unto Thee, O Lord, in affliction I call,
My comfort by day, and my song in the night.
O why should I wander, a stranger from Thee,
Or cry in the desert, Thy face to see?
My comfort and joy, my soul’s delight,
O Jesus my Savior, my song in the night.
