Thought for Today
Psalm 136:3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever . . . 7 who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; 8 the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Ecclesiastes 1:9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
Luke 21:25 "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
I cannot comment on the truth of Qoheleth’s words about there being nothing new under the sun because it has been so long since we’ve seen the sun peeking through the clouds here in New England that I do not remember exactly what the sun looks like (only mildly hyperbolic). I’m not sure we have seen the sun since those words in Ecclesiastes were written!
The meteorologist on our favorite television station promised that we would see the sun today. So far . . . nothing! Someone commented to me yesterday that weather forecasting is the only job where you can be wrong most of the time and still be paid a big salary. Apologies to any meteorologist or any parent of one who might be reading this. Obviously that person who said that was oblivious to politics and to economics.
“S.A.D most commonly means Seasonal Affective Disorder, a type of depression linked to seasonal changes, especially reduced sunlight in autumn and winter.” (Copilot Search) It seems a bit early in the season to be talking about or even thinking about S.A.D. When we first moved to New England, I had heard about S.A.D. but did not truly understand the full impact of the reality of that reduced sunlight. Our first PCP here included in our first round of blood testing a check on our Vitamin D levels. That was a first for both of us, having previously lived along the Texas Gulf Coast. There we were more concerned with protection from the sun in order to avoid skin cancers.
I don’t really think our earliest ancestors-in-the-faith really understood the link between sunlight and both physical and mental health. Certainly, they did understand the difference between light and dark. Few of us today have ever experienced complete darkness . . . unless we have been stuck in an elevator. I have; and those few minutes before the emergency lighting came on were terrifying. For the majority of us, light pollution is a greater concern than true darkness. Unless one has been far from any city, the vast nighttime display of stars in the Milky Way is something we have only encountered in literature. We assume it is there because we have read about it, not because we have seen it.
The contrast between light and darkness has long been important to humanity. Both the real and metaphorical contrast between the two has long been in our minds, our art and our literature. Many ancient religions were essentially dualistic, positing a beneficent light deity contrasted with a malevolent dark deity.
Is light associated with good because of some ancestral fear of ‘things that go bump in the night?’ It is almost ‘gospel’ that campfires keep the wolves at bay. Of course, the gloom I see outside my window today and for the past several days is not exactly darkness. Although it is not bright and sunny today (for the millionth straight day!!!), neither is it dark enough for the wolves to be prowling about. Okay, we don’t have wolves, but we do have coyotes and thankfully they are not howling or prowling.
As Christians, we are staunchly monotheistic. We echo the words of our Jewish ancestors, “Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” There is truly only one God. But, we also know these words about Jesus, “John 1:3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
The sun may not be shining in the sky right now. For all of us, the Son is shining in our hearts, in our minds and in our lives. The darkness did not overcome the light of the Son, will not overcome that light, cannot overcome Christ’s light in and to the world.
Watch for the light of the sun, bask in the light of the Son, trust God,
Pastor Ray