The Northern Lights - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Matthew 13:43

The Northern Lights
Following a shared lunch after the service, M. showed impressive film footage of a vacation in Norway. With a drone he filmed the wonderful landscape, the fjords, the picturesque fishing villages and the untouched nature on the Lofoten. He also captured the Northern Lights with moving images.

The northern lights are electrically charged particles of the solar wind that are attracted to the Earth's poles. They hit oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere and transform them into charged ions. But after a short time, the particles return to their original state through recombination. Thus, electromagnetic radiation is released and light is emitted.

When I saw this fascinating play of colours on the screen, today's verse came to my mind. The "righteous" of whom Jesus Christ speaks in this passage are not people who are inherently better than others. Nor are they people who have been canonised by religious officials. And they are certainly not those who consider themselves more righteous and better than others.

Those that "shine forth as the sun" will rather be the people who have understood that they cannot stand before God and therefore need forgiveness of their guilt. As a result, they have met Jesus as Saviour and Lord and have become joyful about it. Their lives have radiance because they know Him personally and live close to Him. And the most beautiful thing is yet to come for them: the kingdom of their Father in heaven. God Himself will then rejoice in the radiance of His children, because His own glory is reflected in them.

Today's reading: Numbers 1:22-37 · Matthew 1:18-25