Life on Earth wouldn’t be possible without the Sun, because all life depends on photosynthesis — the process in green plants and certain other organisms by which food and cells needed for growth are synthesized, using light as an energy source. In turn, those plants and other organisms provide nourishment for animal life. Without the Sun, there wouldn’t be anything to eat and all life would cease to exist. So in a sense, every living thing eats sunshine. No wonder the ancients worshipped the Sun! It’s a type or symbol of God because it not only gives us light and warmth, but it actually manufactures the food that we eat.

Without the warmth of the Sun, Earth would be too cold to support life — like on the dark side of the Moon and other places in space that are shielded from the Sun’s rays, where temperatures are hundreds of degrees below zero.

The Sun’s gravitational pull also keeps Earth in its orbit. It keeps the whole world on the right track.

The Sun performs these four major functions: It gives light, supplies warmth, produces food, and provides the gravitational pull needed to keep Earth in orbit. Now if the Sun has that much power, think how much spiritual power our spiritual sun, God, has!

God’s physical creation often illustrates spiritual truths, and I’m sure He created the Sun, the Moon, the stars, Earth and the other planets the way He did in part to help us better understand our relationship with Him.

God is a Spirit, and the Bible also says that He is light (John 4:24; 1 John 1:5). If He is both of those things and if light can be powerful energy, as science has proven, then the Spirit of God can also be powerful energy — spiritual energy.

Without the light of the Sun, we’d be in total darkness, except for starlight. Even the Moon wouldn’t shine without the Sun, because the Moon has no light of its own; it only reflects the light of the Sun. Just so, if it weren’t for the Lord we would be in almost total spiritual darkness.

Without the warmth of the Sun’s rays, we’d also freeze to death. In fact, we’d freeze solid! Without the Lord, we’d all be dead cold spiritually.

Each of us who has received Jesus as our Savior is like a sunbeam, a little ray of sunshine coming from the Lord.

Without the Sun’s rays, there would be no food, and without the Lord to feed us spiritually, our spirits would die of hunger.

Finally, without the Sun’s gravitational pull, instead of staying in its well-planned orbit, Earth would go wandering off through space and probably crash into some other astral body eventually. Without God’s guidance, His gravitational pull on us in the spiritual world, we too would certainly get out of the well-planned orbit of His will — our proper spiritual orbit — and we’d go wandering off into the darkness of spiritual space and probably crack up somewhere.

Wandering off in spiritual darkness is like being out of orbit, having no direction, no guidance — lost in space! That’s what people who don’t have the Lord are like: They’re lost in spiritual space, spiritual darkness. Cold, hungry people are wandering around in darkness without God, just as Earth would be without the Sun.

God even calls the wayward angels, the rebellious angels and spiritual powers of the Devil “wandering stars” (Jude 6, 13). They’ve tried to run away from His control. They’ve left their center and gotten out of orbit. In their rebellion, they’re wandering off, lost in space! That has the most horrible sound to it — ”lost in space” — wandering off through the vast darkness of space, so alone! It’s just like people without the Lord — freezing, starving, blind, and lost.

God is our sun; we are His moon. We merely reflect His light. And when should we reflect His light the most? When does the Moon shine brightest? — At night, when the Sun is out of sight. As the world slips deeper and deeper into spiritual darkness, so we must keep on shining and lighting the world with His reflected light.

We are also like the Sun’s rays. Each of us who has received Jesus as our Savior is like a sunbeam, a little ray of sunshine coming from the Lord. Each of us has become part of His light and part of His power, spiritually.

The Bible tells us that God is also love (1 John 4:8). Love is the power and light of God. So when you give God’s love to people, you’re showing them His light.

God’s Spirit of love and power and light will lead you to those who especially need your loving help and who will respond in loving appreciation, just as it will also lead them to you.

Have you got God’s lovelight? You do if you have Him! Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love, and if you have Jesus, you have God’s lovelight too!

Lovelight, Copyright © 1998-2012, The Family International