Heavenly Sunlight

The long days and nights of winter can sometimes be very tough to bear, especially the dreary dark days without sunlight.  Cabin fever can set in and such days without sunlight  can actually bring on seasonal depression and other health problems.  But then imagine living in a place like Tromso, Norway where the sun never even rises there between November and January.  This town sits on an island about the size of Manhattan and every fall its 70,000 residents face the prospect of spending winter in perpetual polar night.  I would find it very hard to live there and, yet, in a spiritual sense, that’s where we are living now.  This world is spiritually dark and folks are blinded to the truth.  And yet God pours His heavenly sunlight into the lives of believers every day. James said in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow of turning.” And 1 John 1:5 reminds us that “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”  This gospel song on this theme of sunlight was written in 1899 by Henry Jeffreys Zelley (1859-1942), a Methodist minister.  Noted for his evangelistic fervor, Zelley produced over 1500 poems, hymns, and gospel songs. On one occasion in 1899 a man named George Harrison Cook brought the pastor a tune, asking if Pastor Zelley could write some appropriate words for it. The result of his work was this hymn that has been sung now for over a century.  It was first published in 1903.  In 1942 Charles E. Fuller, who founded the Old Fashioned Revival Hour radio broadcast in 1925, adapted the song’s refrain for use on its own.  As a child growing up I can clearly remember many nights of listening to this radio program and hearing this special chorus. Rudy Atwood’s beautiful piano rendition of this each week was something special and helped make this chorus so popular all across the country.  I’m sure that was the experience of many believers in my generation.  “Heavenly Sunshine” became a widely popular little chorus decades after the hymn was written. The simple truth of Henry Zelley’s hymn is within the grasp of all.  We have what the world needs today – the light of the world, Jesus Christ.  Our thankful heart should rejoice in God’s gifts, including the blessing of eternal life which comes down from above.  This week be sure to thank God for the sunlight of His blessings. Let’s sing His praises as we walk daily all of our journey  in sunlight, sunlight of His love.

Heavenly Sunlight played on my Ratliff mandolin