This is the time of year that many Alaskans start to notice that the days are getting longer (it’s also true, of course, that many other Alaskans don’t “notice” this, but have been obsessively keeping track of every added minute of daylight since December 21st). Where we live in Alaska (Wasilla), even on the shortest day, we still get a little over 5 hours of sunlight. But, it’s still a great relief to know that for the next several months, we’ll be seeing more and more of the sun each day.

Which is why my reading yesterday from Charles Spurgeon’s Evening and Morning devotional was timely. Here is what he wrote (the devotional is for January 5th):

Light might well be good since it sprang from that fiat of goodness, “Let there be light.” We who enjoy it should be more grateful for it than we are, and see more of God in it and by it. Physical light is said by Solomon to be sweet, but gospel light is infinitely more precious, for it reveals eternal things and ministers to our immortal natures.

Alaskans have no problem giving a hearty “Amen” to this! As Solomon says in the verse Spurgeon references, “Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun” (Ecclesiastes 11:7). As we give thanks for the prospect of seeing more and more of the “sweet” light of the sun, we ought also to give thanks for the light of Christ, who by it gives us eternal life.

Pastor Scott