Light on the Earth

According to google, it was Elly Derr who said, "A diamond is a piece of coal that didn't quit under pressure." I'm afraid I have no idea who Elly Derr is, but I have heard that little bit of wisdom before. What, though, is coal?  It's plants, mostly. And where do plants get their food? Primarily from the sun. In fact, the sun is the source of all our food, too.

Back when I taught fourth grade, I enjoyed assigning food charts. I had the fourth graders keep a list of everything they ate. Then we looked at where all the food comes from. We traced every bit of it back to plants, which depend on the sun for photosynthesis. So all our food really does come from the sun. And all our coal.

Have you ever gathered, on a cold winter day, around a coal stove? It's been years since I did that, but I can tell you, it's a warm place to be. These days we don't heat our homes with coal directly, but some of our electricity comes indirectly from that source. I love thinking, when I am enjoying light and heat in my home, that it's really all sunshine.

Like many of you, I crave sunshine, and too many gray days really put me in a funk. But when we can't get it directly, we can have the benefit of the sun in other ways. Just think of God's foresight and love to make--way back on the fourth day ever--a source of heat and light for us to enjoy in 2015.

"Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so" (Genesis 1:14-15). And so it is.

--Sherry Poff