Shine on Me

Summer’s almost over; the days are getting shorter, and cooler. The air conditioning’s off, and I thought briefly last night about turning on the heat at my home, but I survived without it. I was thinking on these things as I drove back from church this morning, and looked out at the blue sky and bright sun. Before I go back to mom’s, should I stop at home and open the shades at my house to let the sunlight in?

I did a quick recall of my physics classes, and some common sense: the sun would shine in through the windows and warm everything it touched, the carpets, the furniture, even the darker walls. It would make the house warmer, even if the temperature outside did not get much above 70. Of course, I won’t get back home until after mom goes to bed, and by then it will be dark and cooler. What to do? I reasoned the heat generated within the house coupled with the heat radiating in off of the windows during the 10 hours of daylight remaining would more than offset the cold coming in, in the few hours of darkness. It dawned on me that both the light and the dark would cause heat or cold to radiate off the windows, but only the light would shine into the house, and generate even more heat there. The warm sunlight generates heat, wherever it touches, while the dark and cold just slowly creep in.

It’s kind of that way with our faith, isn’t it? The light shines brightly, generating heat and warmth within our personal home. It’s there most every day, if we open the shades to let it in. God’s radiance feels warm on our body; He doesn’t have to say a word or do a thing, but we can feel Him there. It’s a good feeling. Unfortunately, we often don’t stop to pay attention to the heat of love freely given to us, and we only notice it when it is gone, and the cold of sin or sorrows enter our lives. Then we want His warmth; we want His presence. And so we call out to Him in prayer: please answer us, please come to us. Sometimes when we do that we find, just like when opening the shades, that He is already here, just waiting for us. But sometimes ….

Sometimes we wait a long time before we call. Maybe we think we can do without God; maybe we thought we He’s only there for emergencies. Night sometimes falls on our home, and it is getting pretty cold before we decide we want His heat. Oh, it’s always there, waiting for our call, but sometimes, like the furnace we have to turn on in our house, sometimes it’s going to cost us something. Indeed, sometimes our waiting costs us dearly. Sometimes, even, we find that the furnace refuses to come on; our ignoring it for so long has broken the connection. Oh yes, then it costs us very dearly. We turn on the thermostat: nothing. We pray: nothing. And we have to spend a long cold night, waiting --- and praying --- for the heat to come back on in our lives.

I stopped home and opened the shades. I’m betting the house will be warmer when I get home than if I had not opened the shades, and perhaps I’ll save a little bit of money --- another night I won’t have to turn on the furnace. It’s a good thing to let the sun shine in on my home. I gave thanks to God for the sun, just a little thing, making sure our connection is always working.