The Healing of the Sun
Sunday, February 4, 2024
For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Mal. 4:2, NIV.
The ship arrived at Antarctica December 24, 1928. Richard Byrd and his crew of 41 unloaded supplies for Little America—the place they would stay for the next 14 months. When they arrived, the sun shone for 24 hours. As the men worked, they knew time only by checking their watches.
Then the length of days began to decrease, and in April they lost the sun. They lived in buildings connected by underground tunnels for five months. During this time the morale of the men deteriorated significantly. Then on August 20, 1929, the sun returned. Norman Vaughn writes in his autobiography With Byrd at the Bottom of the World: “How can I explain the joyousness of the first few days of sunlight? We felt like prisoners who had received commutation of our sentences. A brightness appeared on our faces. We walked faster and moved with an energy we had long forgotten.”
Do you take the sun for granted? It has incredible health-giving properties such as killing germs, helping our bodies manufacture vitamin D, and improving the function of our pituitary, hypothalamus, and pineal glands. Plus, it’s essential for growing our food. The simple fact is, we can’t function without the sun. Nor can we function without the Sun of righteousness.
I can just imagine Admiral Byrd’s party coming out of their underground homes, seeing the light of the sun, and kicking up their heels with joy, can’t you? This same joy can be yours each morning as you welcome God’s new day, and as you invite the Sun of righteousness into your life. Experience the reality of the promise in Malachi: “For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”
Light is the starting place of life. Perhaps that’s why the biblical account of Creation begins this way: “In the beginning . . . God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good” (Gen. 1:1-4, NIV).
Spend some time today in the light God created for you to enjoy.
The ship arrived at Antarctica December 24, 1928. Richard Byrd and his crew of 41 unloaded supplies for Little America—the place they would stay for the next 14 months. When they arrived, the sun shone for 24 hours. As the men worked, they knew time only by checking their watches.
Then the length of days began to decrease, and in April they lost the sun. They lived in buildings connected by underground tunnels for five months. During this time the morale of the men deteriorated significantly. Then on August 20, 1929, the sun returned. Norman Vaughn writes in his autobiography With Byrd at the Bottom of the World: “How can I explain the joyousness of the first few days of sunlight? We felt like prisoners who had received commutation of our sentences. A brightness appeared on our faces. We walked faster and moved with an energy we had long forgotten.”
Do you take the sun for granted? It has incredible health-giving properties such as killing germs, helping our bodies manufacture vitamin D, and improving the function of our pituitary, hypothalamus, and pineal glands. Plus, it’s essential for growing our food. The simple fact is, we can’t function without the sun. Nor can we function without the Sun of righteousness.
I can just imagine Admiral Byrd’s party coming out of their underground homes, seeing the light of the sun, and kicking up their heels with joy, can’t you? This same joy can be yours each morning as you welcome God’s new day, and as you invite the Sun of righteousness into your life. Experience the reality of the promise in Malachi: “For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”
Light is the starting place of life. Perhaps that’s why the biblical account of Creation begins this way: “In the beginning . . . God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good” (Gen. 1:1-4, NIV).
Spend some time today in the light God created for you to enjoy.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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