September 12
DebDay 182: Sunny Day
The sun is out. And for some reason, Deb and I woke this morning somewhat anxious. Okay, we know the reason. The same reason anyone else in town wakes up "anxious" on a sunny Saturday morning. Gotta go do something. Something fun!
Aside from the accepted fact that Juneauites regard one sunny day as counterbalancing months of gloom, this particular sunny day comes as a late seasonal surprise. A tangible expression of God's grace to us!
The past 6-7 months have been hard. The summer weather never really came, and if it did, it didn't sustain. The summer weather (or lack thereof) has seemed to me like a metaphor for life.
Covid 19, and continuing civil unrest have discouraged most everyone. The beginning of the school year feels so unlike any other. More recently, along the rest of the West Coast, houses and properties are burning up.
A lot has seemed so gloomy. To the extent that I force myself to take a "sabbath" on Saturdays from most media sources, only because I need a break from bad news.
In some ways, we've forgotten how to have fun. (A string of rainy Saturdays will do that.) So here, on what is a bright and sunny Saturday, Deb and I feel like we have to go and do something. Anything that gets us outside.
Someday, everything I just wrote will be obsolete an out of date. The hardships of our lives, even the metaphor of bad weather, will be nothing but a distant memory, if a memory at all.
Revelation 22:5 tells us this: "And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God givers it light, and its lamp is the Lamb."
In the new heavens and new earth, the weather will always be bright and sunny. (Better than even Arizona, I'm guessing.) Our Father will be our sun. His Son our Savior will be our moon. It'll be light all the time.
And what we regard as "fun" will be so different, and so better than what we can even imagine in these present days.
So today, if we all get to go outside and play, we do so rehearsing for our eternity. So today, if we find ourselves relishing this late weather gift, we can celebrate our Lord, He the Lord over all.
Even the Lord over the weather. Even the Lord of sunny days!
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau
