When was the last time you watched the sun rise above the horizon? Or, have you watched the sun set recently? I mean, when was the last time you stood there and gave the phenomenon all your attention? How did it make you feel?
It’s amazing. We are powerless in pressing the pause button on either of those fleeting scenes. It will not wait until you configure your gadgets to get the most perfect picture or video. You can choose, somewhat, the emotion with which you walk away from the experience, but a sunset or a sunrise comes and goes everyday as it pleases — on its own schedule.
I call watching the sun breaking the horizon an “experience” because it’s a new package of colors and emotions everyday. And even if your scientific mind tells you that it is actually the horizon that crosses the sun, whatever your reference frame, there is the awakening of wonder and amazement and curiosity.
I need to point out in passing, that while it may not be the common thing anymore to associate the beginning of a day with the sunset, it actually is the start of a new day at the location it’s being experienced, according to the Biblical creation account.
Whereas a cloudy midday sky might be resented as a “damper” on our day, the clouds at sunrise or sunset just seem to add more heavenly paint colors to the picture. Awesome! Sometimes, the clouds also tend to soften the rays making them easier to look at with the naked eye.
No matter where you are in the world, no matter the season either, the sun rises in the eastern sky and sets in the west. Of course, this is from our experience as we move with the earth’s surface anticlockwise (looking down it’s north-south axis).
One begins to notice the significance of the sunrise-sunset phenomenon as a measure of time. It does not matter how science defines a second or millisecond, the minute or the hour, we cannot change the rate of rotation of the earth about it’s axis or the speed of the earth in orbit about the sun. Hence, science cannot change the length of a day. It is interesting to note that since the very first verses in the Bible account of the creation of life on this earth, the length of time referred to as a day was established as from sunset one day to sunset the following day. “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” — Genesis 1:5 (last part), NIV. In every reference to a day in creation, the order “evening…morning” was given in the text.
So, the next time you see the sunset, stop and ponder — think about these things.
- The Creator has designated this phenomenon as reference for time and seasons. Could I be missing any significance indicated by the permanence and prominence of this marker in time?
- The colors, the faithfulness of a sunrise — even behind a thick cloudy veil — is a faithful fulfillment of God’s promise that in Genesis 8:22 (NKJV) that,
“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
I like to think that every sunset or sunrise is unique. Each event is associated with one, and only one, particular date — never to be had again. Experiencing today’s sunrise or sunset is not the same as witnessing yesterday’s. And especially, amid today’s hustle and bustle, it may be good for our health if we would take time to experience what the psalmist says in Psalm 19:1 (NKJV):
“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”
