Bring me Sunshine

Article for the June 2019 edition of the magazine of the Parish of Felixstowe

Bring me sunshine
In your smile
Bring me laughter
All the while
In this world where we live
There should be more happiness
So much joy you can give
To each brand new bright tomorrow

What joy it was to grow up watching Telly in the 60’s and 70’s and the joy Morecambe and Wise brought to our nation in the words of the song with which they closed every show.

What happened? What went wrong? Who stole the sunshine?

No one seems to smile for the sake of smiling anymore. Which really means no one smiles for others anymore but only for themselves, which is rather sad.

Astronomers will point out that, even at night, the sun shines 24/7, and unless the human race does something really stupid, will continue to shine. In galactic terms our sun is only just entering middle age and is about halfway through its 10 billion year life span. This should be more than enough sunshine for you and me!

Has someone stolen the sunshine? No, but there are two reasons why we do not always have the sun shine on us, both physically and emotionally.

We don’t have sunny days or lives because either there are clouds in the way or, like the earth at night, we have turned away from the light.

We cannot do much about cloudy days and can’t always do much about cloudy situations in our lives. We can, however, remind everyone that clouds will pass and even if we can’t see it the sun continues to shine. In the Christian life this is the deep meaning of hope. Hope is not a wishy-washy desire that things will turn out all right in the end but a firm assurance that, regardless of shades and shadows, the light has come into the world and the darkness has not (and will not) overcome it (John 1v1-18).

The greatest thing preventing a life of sunshine and smiles and overflowing hope is not from clouds but from the night. That time when the sun continues to shine but we turn our backs to it. When we do this all the sun can do is cast our shadow ahead of us and we can be sucked in to thinking things are darker than they really are. This is sad as we have within us the answer to our own malaise yet choose, often out of stubborn wilfulness, like the conscripts in the Musical Hair, refuse to Let The Sunshine In

Bring me sunshine?

This is the task of Christians the world over.  The light has shone on us and our task is to reflect the glory of God’s love for all people everywhere.

We are the ones who will make the ‘brand new bright tomorrow’ as we proclaim the of the One who ‘was life, and the life was the light of the world.’

This blog appeared as an article in the June 2019 edition of the Magazine of the Parish of Felixstowe, St John the Baptist with St Edmund, King & Martyr.

© Andrew Dotchin 2019