Walkin in Sunshine!

Chances are that over the past week many you felt like our buddy Jack here!  It was cold, gloomy, and downright unpleasant.  It makes me wonder if Maltbie Babcock, the author of one of my favorite hymns, "This Is My Father's World," ever experienced a week like the one we had recently.  Studies have shown that, just like milk, a bit of sunshine does a body good!  When we go for a string of days without the warming glow of the sun, our sunny disposition begins to fade.  However, I find it to be an evocative image of our Creator's love and grace. 

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 19:

The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 

Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 

They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

4 

Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

5 

    It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

6 

It rises at one end of the heavens

    and makes its circuit to the other;

    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

The Psalmist here is meditating on all that God has created, noting that in all the world, all things point back to the Creator.  Much like Babcock describes in, "This is My Father's World."  

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,

The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.

This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;

He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.

This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:

Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,

And earth and Heav’n be one.

 Today, we find ourselves almost halfway through the Lenten Journey.  Lent, the time of self-denial, spiritual inventory, and general gloominess.  The one time of year when the organist gets to play all the music in minor keys they have been rat-holing all year.  In general, Lent can in many ways resemble the previous week of gloom we have all endured.  We proceed through the season awaiting the sunshine and restorative joy of Resurrection Sunday, just as we have spent this past week locked in the house with a couple of stir-crazy kids just begging to see a small ray of hope that the ice will melt. 

But that's not the end!  

As the Psalmist continues to meditate on all that God has created and how it calls back to God, the writer even talks about the sun.  

"It rises from one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth."  

What a message of hope!  Just as the sun reaches all that God has created, to provide warmth and restoration, so does God's love, mercy, and grace.  As we continue on in our Lenten journey together, it's easy to get bogged down and feel beaten in the frigid ice of regret and shame.  But, our God calls us into the sunshine of God's grace to reconciliation and fulfillment.  Take some time this week to celebrate and bask in the warm glow of sunshine that is God's grace as it melts the ice of regret that traps us.  Live fully into all that God has called you to be!