Sunrise and dawn

I have a thing for sunsets. Most evenings, I stalk them. Admittedly, my preference for dusk over dawn has a lot to do with being much more awake at sunset. But the beauty of the sunrise is dawning on me.

Dawning on Me

And that has a lot to do with a single verse in Proverbs 4.

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”

Proverbs 4:18

The context for this verse is the two paths: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. The first nine chapters of Proverbs are all about those two ways. One way gets darker, and one way gets brighter. But if you don’t know the lay of the land, which way is east and which is west, you can’t tell sunrise from sunset.

But it’s not that way with the life of the righteous, of the believer in Jesus Christ. Oh, no—we can absolutely tell a sunrise from a sunset. We know the lay of the land. From the first glimmer of dawn there is a gradually increasing radiance as our path is bathed in the full day’s light.

By the way, I took this photo on a morning jog. Could you tell it was sunrise?

How to Live in the Sunrise

It’s not by perpetually flying east. It by staying close to the rising sun.

The 19th-century Scottish minister, Alexander MacLaren explains the Christian’s brightness.

Our path will brighten, not because of any radiance in ourselves, but in proportion as we draw nearer and nearer to the Fountain of heavenly radiance.

The planets that move round the sun, further away than we are on earth, get less of its light and heat; and those that circle around it within the limits of our orbit, get proportionately more. The nearer we are to Him, the more we shall shine…

If we follow close upon Him we shall not walk in darkness. It is to be secured and maintained… [by] use of their Bibles. That is the food by which we grow. It is to be secured and maintained still more largely by… the habit of prayer. It is to be secured and maintained, again, by the honest conforming of our lives, day by day, to the present amount of our knowledge of Him and of His will. ‘You are the light in the Lord.’ Keep in Him, and you will become brighter and brighter. 

In his light we see light (Psalm 36:9). In his light we are bright (Ephesians 5:8), and the nearer to him, the brighter.

Life Through the Funnel

Proverbs 4:18 reminds me of Matthew 7:13-14, when Jesus said,

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Those words and the dawn’s brightening light remind me of a funnel. Yes, a funnel. Jesus says don’t go in the wide way, the big side of the funnel, because it’ll shrink to total darkness. But go in the narrow side and trust it’ll open up, brighten up, until full or “perfect day.”

We must trust that the light we see is dawn, not dusk. We must believe that there will be a Day when the sun will always be bright— no more “withdrawn, eclipsed, or set,” and that the glorious brightness of Christ, “the sun of righteousness” will always be seen by the righteous to all eternity.

In case you wondered, we who walk by faith in Christ are the righteous. This means that the Christian life is not moving toward night; it’s moving toward full day, toward noon.

No Sunset Years

We believer travel beneath a rising sun (2 Peter 1:19). There is no sunset.

“There are no sunset years for the Christian.”

John Piper

I turn 50 next year, and I know beyond a doubt, it will be the brightest year yet. Because the the light of Christ is gradually driving out darkness. Because I went in the narrow way, and I’m moving toward a spacious place.

As we walk in obedience to Jesus, seeking his face and keeping his ways, our path will get brighter and brighter.

No matter our age.

What’s your favorite bright light verse? Is it one of these?
  • “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8
  • “You are children of light, children of day.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5
  • “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Psalm 36:9
  • “Light dawns for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.” Psalm 97:11
  • “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” John 12:46