Today is the shortest day of the year. Some places have longest night services to acknowledge that in the darkness, we need each other.  So one of my suggestions for people on shortest day, in this week with the most hours of darkness in the year, is to offer words of greeting.

To simply look at people and say, “hello.”

You can do more than that, of course. You can ask how they are doing. You can tell them that you love them, that you are concerned for them. You can offer prayer with them, you can ask prayer of them.

But the starting point is looking at people, looking at each person you see, and say, “hello”.

Why talk about this on a day of joy as we are in a week of darkness? Because we know that being seen and known matters to us. It reminds us that there are other humans, that the other humans are capable of knowing we are present.

As we offer the greeting, we are looking at a person that God loves, that God created, that God came for and died for and rose for. Each person we see.

That reminder can bring us joy, and them as well.