LIGHT!

23½°. It’s tilted 23½° off its axis. Planet Earth. Causing that strange phenomenon of seasons. And equinoxes. And solstices.

Thus it happened that last Wednesday, June 21, the day of the summer solstice, was the longest day of the year for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. And if you live as far North as I do (Aberdeen is 57.13°N, just a few paltry degrees below the Arctic Circle), it can be long indeed. There is always an eerie glow in the sky, even past sunset, all through the night. That picture was taken last Wednesday, shortly before 10:00 p.m.; sunrise that morning was at about 4:00. Praise God for thick drapes—sleep-savers!

I wonder if they have thick drapes in heaven. I wonder if we’ll sleep at all in heaven. For in yon place of glory, it is said …

… there will no longer be any night;
… because the Lord God
will illumine them;
and they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:5

An eternal solstice in the presence of the One whose robe is the light and whose canopy space—the great God of glory, pure God of light, whose angels adore Him, all veiling their sight. The resplendence of His glory and the radiance of His presence! Will we, can we, should we, sleep?

With all that reigning going on, I suppose we might be too busy to sleep? Sounds like there’s work there to be done. Might as well catch a few Z’s here on earth then?

At any rate, the thrust of the Scriptures on this issue is not the availability of snoozes and slumbers or the necessity of grabbing forty winks or taking a nap. Rather, the eternal light signifies the dissipation of darkness, the dispersion of evil, the dispelling of gloom, the destruction of the forces of Satan.

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
Isaiah 9:2

And it has, praise God! The end has begun! Matthew 4:16 cites that verse from Isaiah as being fulfilled in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. The Light of the world has arrived on planet Earth! The One who stepped out into darkness to take away the bleakness of night from our lives.

But true it is, that while we yet live on earth, while we are yet shackled to bodies flawed and desires fallen, while we are yet bound to the ticking of time, we are not yet in solstice. All is not complete daylight … not yet. But solstice is coming, a perpetual one! Soon we’ll be so far “north” that …

… your sun will no longer set,
Nor will your moon wane;
For you will have the LORD
for an everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning will be over.
Isaiah 60:20

No more mourning. No more the sequelae of sin. No more the laments of loss. No more the woes of wickedness. Only rapture, joy, and bliss ... and LIGHT!

But the Lord expects us, despite our temporality and our fallibility, to walk with the Light in our days here on earth, in anticipation of our eternal days there in heaven.

… you were formerly darkness,
but now you are Light
in the Lord;
walk as children of Light ….
Ephesians 5:8

May His Spirit strengthen us to do that, until that day when …

… in the heav'nly country bright
Need we no created light;
Thou its Light, its Joy, its Crown,
Thou its Sun which goes not down;
There for ever may we sing
Alleluias to our King.
William C. Dix, 1860