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I must confess: I am an incurable sun-chaser. I love sunrises and sunsets. I love seeing them and taking pictures of them with my little phone camera. Why am I a sun-chaser?
First, for the sheer beauty of it. I love artwork and consider myself somewhat of an artist. But God is the Artist par excellence. No one can paint the horizon like God. The pre-sunrise sky offers some of the most brilliant colors, as does the afterglow following sunset. The presence of clouds enhances the beauty of sunrises and sunsets. I live near the Gulf Coast of Florida, and it is a regular pastime of many folks to go to the beach to witness the free show at the opening and closing of the day. People “oooh” and “ahh” at the sight they are witnessing, snapping pictures, even bursting into applause. If you ask me, it’s a beauty unsurpassed. “You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy” (Ps. 65:8, LSB).
Second, it is a manifestation of the greatness of God. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). Do all people realize what they are seeing? Do they see the glory and magnificence of the living and true God on display? Sadly, no. As a matter of fact, the majority of people fail to recognize God’s involvement at all. Whether they realize it or not, however, they are accountable for God’s manifestation of Himself in general revelation. Furthermore, they are all without excuse (Rom. 1:19–20). No one will be able to stand in the judgment and say, “I didn’t know there was a God; nobody ever told me.” God Himself told them, and they failed to listen.
There is a third reason. The final chapter of Malachi closes with a reference to a coming day when evildoers will be judged with fire (4:1). But for those who fear God’s name, “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” (v. 2). Four hundred years later, as the events associated with the coming of the long-promised Messiah began to unfold, these words were spoken:
“And you, child, . . . will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, . . . whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness . . . , to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:76–79)
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, spoke these words at John’s birth, with the birth of Jesus soon to follow. John’s ministry fulfilled the promise in the closing words of Malachi that Elijah would come to prepare people for the arrival of the Messiah (Mal. 4:5–6; Matt. 11:13–14).
The next time you see a sunrise (or sunset), rejoice that God has caused the Sun of Righteousness to shine on us, bringing us from darkness to the kingdom of the sons of light (John 12:36; Eph. 5:8; Col. 1:12–13).