Do you remember?

Do you remember the first time you looked at the sun? Probably not. Maybe your mom told you that should shouldn’t stare at it because you would go blind. This is because the sun is a massive ball of flames--a self-contained blazing inferno that sits in the heavens 93 million miles out into space. Yet it is positioned to where it’s just warm enough to ripen our strawberries and tomatoes. It gives us warmth and light, and without it we would not only be in darkness, but life could not be sustained on earth.

Intensely brilliant though the sun is, there are times in which we can gaze on its glorious radiance. When it sits low on the horizon we can view it through the atmosphere, and when we see it in such a state, it often puts on a breathtaking display of majesty.

There was a time when most of humanity believed in geocentricity. We thought that the sun revolved around the earth. That was understandable because the sun rose on one horizon and set on the other. It moved across the sky. We therefore believed that we were the center of the universe, because the sun revolved around us. But knowledge has shown us that in the infinitude of space, we are but a tiny dot that revolves around a massive sun.

There was a time in my childish ignorance that I thought that I was the center of the universe. Like most kids, I was self-centered, and in my ego-centricity I thought that God’s purpose was to rise and shine on me. He was my divine butler. But knowledge showed me that everything revolves around Him. He created that massive inferno that sits in the heavens. He set it at 93 million miles away, to give warmth and light to His creation, and like our relationship to the sun, without God we are not only in darkness (see John 8:12), but we are "dead in our trespasses and sins" (see Ephesians 2:1). Without Him, our life will not be sustained on earth.

God is like the sun. He dwells "in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see..." (see 1 Timothy 6:16) and shines "above the brightness of the sun." When Saul of Tarsus was exposed to His light on the Road to Damascus, the brilliance took the sight from his eyes.

However, unspeakably glorious though He is, God made it possible for us to actually look upon Him. The Bible says,

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

The God of glory came low so that we could see His invisible form--through the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Through the Scriptures, we can see His divine hatred for hypocrisy, His gentleness with the humble, and most of all, His great love for sinners which was clearly commended to each of us through the cross.

Pic. Southern California sunrise (taken from my home, this week).