That Yonder Sun

I was driving South some years ago about 7:30 in the morning. The specific stretch of freeway is virtually empty at that time. There comes a point where the road suddenly turns due East. I followed the road and there it was: suspended like a ball from a science lab; the sun. It was large, like a picture occupying top center screen on a flatscreen tv.

I couldn't see anything - well, I could barely see the white reflective bumps dividing the lanes and a vague car in the distance, but that's it. I decided to put on my sunglasses. Whereas before, the sunlight blotted out everything in its path, now the sun hung like a brownish-yellow orb in the morning sky, intact, sunrays contained. I could look right at it, but still had to squint to shelter my eyes.

The Bible (I Timothy 6:16 - NASB) says that God alone ". . . possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see."

Now, a god that dwelt in a sun or that god that was a sun could be contained by human imagination, giving us some kind of hold on that god. Picture the brownish-yellow orb contained by my sunglasses. In contrast, human imagination would not suffice to contain God - Something so fiercely independent.  However, the picture is apropos. That morning sun was light that was dangerously unapproachable - even at a distance.

The Bible does say that God's divine attributes are evident through God's creation: "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20 - NASB)

It is said that God made the sun. If the sun itself is unapproachable light, how much more so God who dwells in unapproachable light. Sunglasses wouldn't quite work on Him. Any attempt at imagination would fall well short of who and what He is.  We cannot contain Him by our imagination, but He has given us a picture that describes His attributes.