Sunrise

Have you ever peeled yourself out of bed (or maybe a tent) early enough to watch the sun rise? I have. I can think of no prettier a place to watch the sun rise than on the beach in La Barra de la Cruz in Oaxaca, Mexico. Giant boulders line the beach with mountains as their backdrop while the waves of the Pacific Ocean crash into them. Before the sun even peaks over the ocean's horizon, the dark night begins to soften. The sun rises slowly, but ever so surely, over the ocean's lining, bringing light where there was once darkness. The path to the boulder you just traversed isn't quite as treacherous as the light reveals every nook and cranny.

What if the sun didn't rise? What if it was darkness all the time? We would go mad. Depression would take up residence in our lives, I'm sure. The sun rising each morning is evidence of our God's tender mercy. But an even greater evidence of God's tender mercy is this:

"And you, child (John the Baptist), will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, BECAUSE OF THE TENDER MERCY OF OUR GOD, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Luke 1:76-79

By God's tender mercy He sent Jesus, the sunrise, to give light to those who sit in darkness! And if we are His children then we are children of light!

"...for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light..."

Ephesians 5:8

When I first read this passage in Luke I thought of missionaries and how they are like a sunrise bringing the gospel to the most darkest places on earth in terms of people not knowing Jesus, rather, those who have never even heard His name. And while that is true, it is also true that as any christian shares the gospel, they are like a sunrise, shedding the light of the gospel in people's dark and hopeless lives. Two images come to mind. That of a dugout canoe filled with missionaries approaching a small island dotted with tribes men and women who know nothing of Jesus but everything of animism and spirits and ancestors and death. They are sitting in darkness and those approaching the island in the canoe are like a sun rising, about to shed light over the darkness, as they share the good news of Jesus. 

The other image is one of me and my own children. As I sit my children down and read them stories from Jesus Story Book Bible or briskly walk them to the bathroom to discipline them in love or sing hymns at the tops of our lungs, I see a sun rising, shining the light of Jesus into their lives. What a blessing to receive a sunrise. What a blessing to receive the Son!

"...the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings."

Malachi 4:2

The Son brings light where there was once darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6). Life where there was once death (Ephesians 2:4-5). The Son calls His children out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)! And we get to herald that news! We get to be like a sunrise, bringing light to darkness, by declaring what Jesus has done for those who sit in darkness! Praise God for what He has done for us in His Son!

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-"

Ephesians 2:4-5