Let the Sonshine

Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord.

Psalm 4:6b

God spoke light into being at creation. He then created the sun to give us light and life. The sunlight helps plants to grow, keeps us warm, and helps us know when it is daytime. The sunlight also enables our bodies to produce vitamin D. I didn’t know much about this little vitamin until I was told that I was deficient in it.

I soon learned that a lack of vitamin D may result in fatigue, muscle pain and weakness, joint pain, weight gain, headaches and poor concentration, to name a few. It is implicated in several diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, bone diseases and even asthma.

Few foods contain vitamin D. We mostly get it from the sunlight. Fifteen minutes a day in the sun is all it takes to receive sufficient amounts vitamin D.

The physical and spiritual parallels are striking.

I suffer spiritual heart disease that is unaffected by what I eat. The only remedy is a little Sonshine. For God made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). As I sit at Jesus’ feet, He changes my heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

If I stay away from God’s word too long, my mind wanders from edifying, positive thoughts to destructive, negative ones. I become fearful, irritable and distracted. The prescription? A good dose of the light of God’s Word to renew my mind.

Without God’s light to energize me, everything I do becomes laborious and dull. But the joy of the Lord is [my] strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

God wants to bless us with both physical and spiritual light proceeding from His radiant face. 

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

Terri