“The Day Of Lights!”(Gen.1:14-19).
On the fourth day of creation “God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars…”
The lights are not just
there to make things visible at the needed time, they are of spiritual importance to almost all religions.
It is important to note that the two great lights were made to govern the day and night, and as signs to mark the seasons.
The weeks and months we have today derives from the divisions of the moon. I may not go to its technical details, but the first quarter of the moon is averagely seven days, the half moon is another seven days, the three-quarter moon takes another seven days and the full moon is another seven days. This gives twenty-eight days – one month.
It is therefore not just the dynamic equivalence principle that translates the month into most African mother-tongues as moon.
In olden mythology the sun was regarded as a god worth worshipping. The day of the worship of the sun is what we have today as Sunday, the day of the Lord.
Besides, today’s Christmas day was the feast day of Sol Invictus – the unconquerable Sun god. Astrology is a study and interpretation of the stars. Each time the Nativity story is recounted we give an important place to the three astrologers who through a star knew that a great king had been born. And they came with gifts to worship the new born king.
So you see, the sun, moon and stars actually govern humanity. When God placed the sun, moon and stars in their places, he saw that it was good.
We may abuse them any way we can, we may misuse them any way we can, we can use them any way we want, but we must know that God saw that it was good; so it was useful.
The lights are there to govern the seasons for us so that we become children of light. And Christ Jesus is the light of the world!
Prayer: Heavenly Father thank you for the lights. Make us too to be veritable lights in a dark world. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
Our Hymn In Praise Of Creation:
- God, who made the earth,
the air, the sky, the sea,
who gave the light its birth,
still cares for me. - God, who made the grass,
the flower, the fruit, the tree,
the day and night to pass,
still cares for me. - God, who made the sun,
the moon, the stars we see,
who sees life’s clouds come on,
still cares for me. - God, who made all things
on earth, in air, in sea,
who changing seasons brings,
still cares for me.