God Speaking

“But they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength”

(Judges 4: 11)

I live in Vancouver, Canada. One of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its back drop is majestic mountains that overlook an equally, beautiful harbour, that leads out to the sparkling ocean where a rushing mighty river also exits from the land. Unfortunately, for me anyway, the climate leaves much to be desired, rain and grey days feature much of the winter and often spoil summer days. Friends who live in Eastern Canada are horrified when I say that as heavy snow and below freezing temperatures are their lot and they envy our mild winters, but I was born in sunny Australia and miss the sun! 

When we were children growing up, we had a song we loved singing and it went like this, 

Oh, let the sunshine in

Say it with a grin!

Smiles never lose.

And frowns never win.

So, open up your hearts and let the sunshine in!

The verse in Judges, (5:11), written thousands of year ago, echoes that sweet children’s song and when we love and follow the Lord, we can be that sunshine for all those around us even when it is a grey day. The world is experiencing a grey time, now, as the pandemic continues to attack humans and take away lives, it is hard not to feel downcast with restrictions in place, but when we think of being able to spread the joy of sunshine it gives us impetus when we know that the Lord will help us to do that. Also, our own spirits lift as mine did as a little girl when we began to grin while we sang that little ditty. 

Radiant faces are spoken of in scripture and sunshine and shining like the sun is contributed to our Heavenly Father and when the prophet, Habakkuk sees a vision of God this is the description. 

“His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hands where his power was hidden” (Habakkuk 3: 4)

Jesus who was the very essence of God, is transformed in front of Peter, James and John and his face shines like the sun. 

“There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as the light.” (Matthew 17: 2)

Sunshine is proving to be beneficial in stopping the spread of this covid19 that is creating havoc in our world and health authorities are now offering hope that as summer arrives cases here will ease. 

Sometimes life does take on a feeling of gloom and if we allow it to overcome us it can do a lot of damage in our lives and sometimes of course we are justified in feeling low as circumstances overwhelm us, but if we go and read the verse in Judges (Judges 4:  11) we find that if we spend time with the Lord his warmth will give us strength. 

So, open up your heart and let the sunshine in!