Cycles. The universe is organized by and around cycles. For those of us who practice the Christian faith, today, November 30, 2025, is the beginning of two important cycles. The first and most obvious is the annual cycle of seasons that guide our worship: Advent, followed by Christmastide, and so on.

But the annual cycle of the church year is part of a larger, 3-year cycle created by the “Revised Common Lectionary,” whereby we schedule readings from the Bible to make sure we cover the most important stuff every three years. Today is Advent 1 of Year A.

Cycles. Things we–and the universe–do over and over, again and again, every ending the prerequisite to a new beginning, every new beginning marching irrevocably toward an ending. Change and continuity in balance.

Take mayflies. They have the shortest adult life cycle of all animals: 24 hours. Their sole purpose during their short time as adults on planet earth is to mate and lay eggs. But of course, in keeping with the nature of cycles, that cycle is part of a larger one. Mayflies can live up to a few years as nymphs in the water. And of course that cycle is dependent on even larger cycles, climate cycles, weather cycles, and on and on. It’s all really very complicated.

And awe inspiring! I didn’t get very far into this reflection on “#Again” before I fell headfirst down the rabbit hole of comets. Talk about cycles! Comets are, in fact, categorized as “long period” if their cycle (i.e., orbit around the earth) is more than 200 hundred years. Comet C/2017 T1 (Johnson) has a period of approximately 89,500 years. Go ahead and dive in. I gave you a link there to read about it!

Venus’ Comet, on the other hand, is a wonder due to its very ephemerality, formed by a gentle surf washing over a bit of Cross Barred Venus shell on the sand of a Gulf Coast beach. How long until a bigger, stronger wave wipes out the comet and carries the shell inland beyond the reach of the tide? Or out to sea? Of all the bits of shell scattered on the beach, what precise combination of elements came together to create this comet for my awestruck eyes to behold?

Be awake. This God-saturated universe of cycles has stories to tell.