Sunlight for the Soul
“The very plants turn with a joyful transport to the light.” -Schiller
If you’ve ever seen a sunflower, you might have noticed that there is a very good reason that it is called a sunflower. As with other flowers and plants, a sunflower will reorient itself throughout the day to always be pointing at the sun.
Sunflowers follow the sun.
Why would a sunflower want to follow the sun? Because the sun’s light is life-giving, and the more sunlight it can get, the healthier it will be.
Imagine if a flower or plant hated the sun: what would happen if the sunflower bowed down its petals away from the light of the sun, and turned its leaves so it would get as little sunlight as possible? How would this affect the health of the plant, and what would it tell you about the nature of the plant?
A spiritual comparison
In our souls, God is the sun, and His truth is as the rays of sunlight that beam down upon our hearts. The truth of God’s gospel is life-giving, and of critical importance to our spiritual well-being.
Yet what would you say if you saw a person that shunned the truth, and loved darkness instead of light? What might be the spiritual condition of that person?
Just as it seems self-defeating and foolish for a plant to not want to take in every ray of sunlight that it possibly can, so too are we all with our souls, when we try and hide ourselves from God, and live in darkness.
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” -John 3:19-20
Coming to the light
Why would we allow ourselves to be shaded out from God? Usually, it is because we have sinned, and we let this sin separate us from God. We are ashamed of something that we have done, and we want to hide it from God. Perhaps it is out of pride: we don’t want to admit that we’ve made a mistake, and we don’t want to own up to the consequences.
Yet when we sin, we put ourselves under the shadow of sin. When we do a dark deed, we ourselves are shaded out from God’s goodness. It is not that God’s grace is no longer there, or no longer available to us, but simply that we hide ourselves from it, as a sunflower would foolishly hide itself from the sun.
Yet, we ought heed the lesson of the plants, and see how absolutely vital sunlight is to sustain life. We cannot expect to live in darkness, and still prosper spiritually—that would be as if we put a plant in complete darkness, and still expected it to sprout up and grow strong. Only in acknowledging our faults, and coming to the light of God’s truth can we have the strength of God’s nourishment for our soul.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” -1 John 1:8-9
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