Here Comes the Sun
by Oliver Carlos
One of my most favorite photographs in my collection is the first sunrise of the current millennium. It shows me standing on a rice field with the sun rising behind the Calauan hills in Laguna. My wife and I woke up very early on January 1 of the year 2000 just to document this once-in-a-thousand-years moment.
Throughout human history, poems, songs, and other literary works give a special and beautiful meaning to a sunrise. That time of the day is the end of a dark period, and at the same time, the beginning of a bright phase of life.
The night symbolizes sadness, sorrow, negative events, a dark time in our life. We all experience this. There will always be a night time, we cannot do away with it. But the good news is, there will always be a morning.
Morning represents hope, new life, positivity. The morning symbolizes a time in our life when we will experience great prosperity and happiness. The sun will always rise and shine on us, just like God’s blessings. It’s a 100-percent sure thing that will happen. It’s God’s promise that we can claim.
We can read in Psalm 30:5 (NLV) this promise of God:
“Crying may last for a night, but joy comes with the new day.”
Leah Salonga had a hit song when she was a little girl. The lyrics of that song from the musicale Annie says, “The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun…When I’m stuck with a day that’s gray and lonely, I’ll just stick out my chin, and grin, and say…I love you tomorrow, you’re always a day away.” That song is indeed an echo of the Biblical truth in Psalm 30:5.
The Beatles also had a similar song. George Harrison sang, “Little darling, it’s been a cold lonely winter…Here comes the sun, and I say it’s alright”. The song is telling a little child to hush because things will soon be alright and okay, when the sun comes up.
If we can hum earthly songs that make us feel good and positive-minded, how much more should be sing praises that proclaim God’s faithfulness.
Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations. The name of the book means weeping. Jeremiah lived in a very dark period in Israel’s history. Yet his book’s central theme declares that despite the sorrow of the catastrophic times, God will bring forth a new period of prosperity and peace for his people, and that’s for sure, as sure as the sun rising in the morning. We read in Lamentations 3:22–23 (NLT):
“The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.”
Friends, let us claim this. Blessed new year everyone!
