sun

By Elizabeth Prata

I used to spend the Fourth of July in Lubec-Eastport Maine. If you visualize Maine as the profile of a dog, Eastport and Lubec would be the nostrils. They are as far east as you can go in Maine and not be in Canada. The highest tides in the world begin there, with the Bay of Fundy beginning the funnel to a small inlet where massive tides are pushed in several times a day. They are nautical cities, driven by the sea, which surrounds both of them. And as for the air, there’s cool, fog, and cold. Those are the seasons. One one side of the street it’s sunny and the other it’s shady. The difference in temps between the shady side and the sunny side would be at least ten degrees.

Even on the Fourth the temperatures remain cool – in the sun- and out of the sun you will need either long sleeves or a sweatshirt. I loved it.

The Eastport parade drew about 8000-9000 annually, helped by the docking of a navy ship of one kind or another which gave tours. The navy men marched in the parade down Water Street, a sea of white hats swooping down the gentle hill as we clapped for their service and dedication.

I used to get there early because the parade street ran north-south. The sun at the starting time was shining on one side of the street and the other was in shadow. The shadow side was cool and dimmer than the sunny side. It was simply more practical to get there early and be in the warm sun. (Note the ladies are wearing fleeces and huddling under blankets on the dark side of the street. It’s cold on the shady side!)

I’ve noticed something lately. Many of my Christian brothers and sisters are sad. Times are tough, and there is much illness, uncertainty, and confusion. I see a lot of reporting of miscarriages or child deaths, which is utterly tragic. Many people I come across are sad about things in their lives that happened to them on an interpersonal level. (We should be sad over sin too.) I get sad sometimes, thinking of the wrongs done to me or the loss of relationships or I mourn for the way things used to be in my earlier days 50 years ago. I am sad when I see people claiming to be Christians engaged in blatant sin and not repenting.

Jesus got sad, too. Jesus even wept. When He arrived at the place where Lazarus had died, Mary fell at His feet weeping, and “Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,” (John 11:33b).

But there is a danger in allowing sadness to veer from a useful emotion that cleanses and wallowing in it. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines wallowing as “to indulge oneself immoderately.”

One would not normally think of being sad as something one chooses to indulge in, but it is, and is the point of this post. Things happen to us that make us sad, it is part of life. As a strong Christian you are more likely to have events occur that wind up in sadness. The world does not like us. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19). So prepare to be occasionally sad. But do not choose to wallow.

Yes, wallowing is a choice, one that all too many Christians indulge in. Do you return in your mind to that last dreadful conversation and mentally list all the really terrible things your ex-husband/boss/mother said to you? Do you revisit the terrible circumstances, re-telling it constantly in conversation? Even thought it happened last year, ten years ago? Do you sit in your room and cry more often that you sit in your room and praise? You’re wallowing.

Yes, Jesus wept, but look what He did right after that: “So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?” So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb” (John 11:35-38a) Jesus kept moving. He ‘came to the tomb’, He engaged in action, He didn’t sit by the road and cry with His friends who all were crying and had been for days. He kept moving because He had a job to do.

Our job is to be salt and light. We can’t be that if we stop moving. We can’t be that if we are wallowing in sadness over the things that happened to us. If we expend salt on our own tears and our light is dimmed by wallowing, then we are not fulfilling our obligations to the Lord Who also wept, but Who also kept moving.

Christians you can choose to be sad and wallow in ‘what he said’ or ‘what she did,’ and that is a never-ending pit because the world hates us and would love to steal your effectiveness as a joyful Christian on the move. Or you can weep but move on to the next task with all the salt and light you can muster. If you have a hard time doing that, ask the Lord for help, and see what He can do: “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.” (Ps 30:11) Keep on the sunny side, Christians! And keep moving!

Here are the lyrics to the song-

There’s a dark and a troubled side of life
There’s a bright, there’s a sunny side, too
Tho’ we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view

[cho:] Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us ev’ry day, it will brighten all the way
If we’ll keep on the sunny side of life

The storm and its fury broke today,
Crushing hopes that we cherish so dear;
Clouds and storms will, in time, pass away
The sun again will shine bright and clear.
Let us greet with the song of hope each day
Tho’ the moment be cloudy or fair
Let us trust in our Saviour alway
Who keepeth everyone in His care

It’s spring. At this time of year here in the south the weather can be just as turbulent as my former home up in New England. In the south, spring means many days of cloudy and rainy weather. I can’t remember the last time we saw the sun, and we have had indoor recess for too many days to count.

I love the sun. When it comes out all bright and warm, it feels so good, doesn’t it! The golden hour at dawn and sunset is beautiful, when the sun’s shadows lengthen and the air seems to turn to liquid gold. The fluffy clouds sailing along against the blue sky seem to frame the yellow orb as it makes its way through the sky from low to high then low again. It’s an orderly celestial march, one we take for granted, even when the sun is hidden behind clouds. We know it will come back.

Except, one day, it won’t.

When we think of God we often think of Jesus, of God’s glory, His majesty or sovereignty. He is Creator, of course, but if we think of Him in this way we often restrict our thoughts to Genesis, when creation was first made.

His creative work wasn’t restricted solely to creating it. He sustains it, (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:17), and He will UNcreate it. (Revelation 6). Then He will make all things new. (Isaiah 65:17, Revelation 21:5).

The sun is featured prominently in end time prophecy. In the first set of judgments, the Seal Judgments, the sun goes black as sackcloth. (Revelation 6:12). In Revelation 8:12 the Trumpet judgments, we read-

Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.

Can you imagine how scary that will be?

When the demons are allowed to leave the pit in Revelation 9:2, there are so many of them that the sun is blotted out by the cloud they make. In Revelation 16:8 the sun grows so hot that men are scorched just by being outside. In Revelation 19:17 an angel stands in the sun to pronounce judgment, and finally in Matthew 24:29 we read that after the end of the Tribulation, the sun, moon, and stars go completely dark.

This phenomenon of the sun going completely dark is mentioned not just in Revelation and Matthew, but Isaiah 13:10, Ezekiel 32:7, Joel 2:31, Joel 3:15, Amos 8:9, and Zechariah 14:6. And the sun is not dark for a moment or two but a period of time, likely days or even a few weeks. Do you see how important the sun is in prophecy?

God made the sun for us as a helper. In Genesis 1:14-16,

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.

With no sun or moon or stars, the darkness of the Tribulation people will endure will mirror the total sinfulness on earth. It will truly be a time of darkness, spiritually AND physically. The sun shines at His will and pleasure, and it is benign as a light giver as it was intended to be in Genesis or as hostile as a scorcher in judgment against us in Revelation. Again, at His will and pleasure. He is sovereign over all the universe, and the sun bends to his will.

The sun, our friend since the very first days that has given us light, seasons, and warmth, will behave in increasingly erratic ways until the very end of the end when “there shall be no more sun” at all. (Revelation 22:5). But this time, it will be because the glory of God will shine brightly, and there will be no more need of the sun.

And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

What a day that will be!