ARISE, SHINE

     Every blade of grass turns heavenward and upward towards the light. Every tree reaches for the clear sky where it may have unrestricted access to the light of the sun. The sunflower turns on its axis towards the direction of the sun forever mindful of the whereabouts of the sun. Those in the cold of the dark of night are drawn out of the darkness to the warmth and the light of the flame that burns like a star in the canvas of the skies. Everything on earth is patterned by design to reach toward the light, for in the light we finally see our true identity, we see our true selves, not clothed in darkness, but adorned in glory, where we grasp the fullness of the image and reflection of who we were made to be. 

     Just as everything in the solar system deliberately revolves around the sun, we are created to be forever inclined towards the light of the Son. Just like the gravity of the sun holds the planets in their place and on tracks along their pilgrimage around the light of the sun, it is the pull of “the light” that holds us all as man in our place, that we may not drift like the planets into the extremities of “the outer darkness”, forever lost to the light, for all eternity. 

     Our true nature, not the fallen nature, is to be forever inclined upon the glory of the Father who draws us as His children to His bosom, like moths to the flame. Without the light, all would wither and fade into lifeless obscurity. The sun as a signal flare to the grace of God beckons unto all that exists in the universe to forever turn its face towards the light. And just like the sun is a light that cannot be hidden, the light of the Son, the great and beautiful morning star, the brightest sun that ever adorned the canvas of creation, that now sits on the high hill of the throne of all the universe, cannot be hidden. 

    For those who cannot see the light of the Son that is everywhere and all about us, are like those who cannot see the the light of the sun either, for their eyes have been darkened with the cataracts of lenses made cloudy and opaque from the callouses of the apathy of the Church, and the apostasy of unbelief. But for those who daily turn towards the light on a high hill that cannot be hidden, like the daily rising of the sun, we are to rejoice! And we are to STAND! “Therefore take up the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to STAND your ground, and having done everything, to STAND.” (Ephesians 6:13).That we too may be a light that penetrates the darkness of the eyes that yet not see. We are to be a light that cannot be hidden unto the world, a light that darkness can not overcome, so that all may one day arise and stand in the glory of the light that is the Son.

Rejoice! “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” (ISAIAH 60:1).