The Sun of Righteousness

Of the many things that would surprise the 17 year old me about my life today (uses a mac, enjoys lasagna, makes a living from standing up in front of people and talking) perhaps the one that stands out the most is that i married a teacher.

The American day starts early, very early. In fact kids have to be at school fully an hour before i did when i was their age. That means at this time of year we see a lot of sunrises! A lot of blacks turning dark blue, then pink then light blue, a lot of frost being melted. I think Malachi would regard this as an advantage of marrying a teacher. Daily reminders of what Christ's coming will be like.

Towards the end of the final book in the Old Testament, Malachi tells us that 'the sun of righteousness will rise.' The Son is a sun. Why this word picture? Well because Israel were about to head off into 400 years of darkness with no word from the LORD, until John The Baptist showed up, but also because the sun does many things that the Son does.

The sun chases away darkness, and so does the Son. Daylight gradually moves from east to west, rising over my family in Australia, then my family in England, and finally here. It gets rid of darkness totally. Just like Jesus. He comes, and darkness flees, darkness screams and begs to be dismissed into a herd of pigs. We don't stand in our gardens at 3am trying to chase away the darkness, the sun rises and does it for us.

The sun frees us from fear, and so does the Son. I'm not really scared of the dark, and we live in a safe neighbourhood, as evidenced by the fact that we've occasionally left the doors unlocked all night, but sometimes a strange noise at 2am can be unsettling. How often our lives are like a strange noise at 2am! But with Jesus comes light, and with light comes the casting out of fear. We can see that noise was a squirrel running into a tree, we don't need to fear what;s just ahead of us. The Son is here, we can see and we can understand.

The sun brings growth, and so does the Son. This summer we had a mixture of ridiculously hot weather and tropical rain. And that meant the grass, plants, and sadly the weeds grew like crazy! As we're exposed to the Son, we grow. It can be argued that Christian growth is simply loving Jesus more and more. As the Son rises we naturally are drawn towards Him, as the sun draws plants towards itself.

The sun bring song, as so does the Son. Why do the birds sing? Because they are warmed by the sun. Should we not sing when our hearts have been warmed by by the Son? Christians sing because they can't help it. The wonderful things Christ has done for us bring us leaping out the stall like a calve, full of joy. Birds in darkness don't sing, maybe the same is true for Christians.

Perhaps the one advantage of being up early on dark mornings is to see the sun rise. The greatest advantage of Christmas is that the Son has come, chasing away darkness and fear, and bringing growth and joy.