On the Summer Solstice, the amount of daylight is longer than the night. And although the first day of summer has the longest amount of light in the year, the entire season boasts greater spans of sunshine. We notice that the evening hours are still lit until night gradually arrives. Even then, reminders of the greater light linger – fairy lights bordering a pool, the flicker of a campfire, the glow of fireflies as they blink in the night. In some places in the world, the light does not diminish, such as in Alaska, where the night does not arrive for a period. Known as the midnight sun, these extreme periods of 24-hour daylight contrast with the overwhelming darkness of the polar nights in winter.
The sunny days of summer (in whichever hemisphere we live) are the closest example we have to what we read in the Bible about eternity in the New Jerusalem. Isaiah wrote that, “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Isaiah 60:19, NIV). John’s vision in Revelation correlates with this prophecy, as he states that there will be no more night and we will live in the glorious light of our Lord (Revelation 22:5). From these descriptions, we gain a picture of endless light where the evils associated with darkness, like sin and death, will never touch us again.
What it will be like to walk on a renewed earth where all light comes from God is left to our imagination. However, we can know what it is like to live with the Light of the World, Jesus Christ (John 8:12). Through our relationship with Him now, we receive a foretaste of the greater joy of walking with Him in eternity. The glory of His presence will be our focus and delight.
May we savor these longer days and allow them to provide us with a visual reminder of our eternal destiny. God will be the source of our light by which we, and all other forms of life on earth, will live.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Bartek Szewczyk
