Today was a glorious spring day, dark blue sky with a few cotton boll clouds, a bright sunshine warming the landscape. The winds of March blew all day and made the bamboo dance and the wind chimes ping out loud symphonies. The wind was too cool for me so I pondered in the lady den. Penelope and Fatty the squirrel played bird feeder hide and bark all afternoon.

The sun was so pretty on this first Thursday of April. Seemed brighter than normal so I did a little research and learned the sun appears brighter in the spring because the sun’s rays hit the earth at a lower angle. The sun seems to be smiling straight down on my yard today. She’s blindingly bright and beautifully filtering throughout the bamboo forest as the canes dance with the wind. The birds are all over my yard, the scampering squirrels are stealing sunflower seeds from the feeders, and the buzzards are climbing the wind current stairs. All is well in my little piece of heaven.

The sunset was a twilight pageant of golden honey light and the sun walked quickly down the horizon escorted by Father Sky. Mother Nature painted the scarce high clouds in watercolor shades of fiery orange, huckleberry purple, and hot pink, lighting the cloud’s bellies with a red glow, so brief but beautiful in its glorious colors. A quick photo and the clouds’ beauty was gone.

Walt Whitman said, “Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you.” Life is always full of sunshine. Even when clouds of doubt and despair cover the sun, it never stops shining. Psalms 84:11 says, “For the Lord is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory.” God wants us to put our hope in him during times of crisis. He will shield us with his comforting love, pushing the shadows of doubt away.

The Lord, like the sun, is the giver of life. God clothes us with the sunshine warmth of his love and grace. We walk in the sun of God’s love, seeking knowledge of our faith. Without the sun’s rays earth would perish. The sun brings light and warmth to the earth and the Lord’s grace brings light and joy to our lives and comforts us when the days are dark.

By being followers of Christ we give light to people around us. We grow through the sunshine of our faith and spread the light of our faith to others when they are in dark places. Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others.” We walk in God’s light step by step with him. He lights our path and saves us from the darkness of the faithless.

We never walk alone. Jesus can see our destination and knows the path we travel. His light guides us through the darkness into the sunlight of God’s love.

“The sun is a daily reminder that we too can rise again from the darkness, that we too can shine.” – S. Ajna