Two great lights
Genesis 1:16–19 (NIV)
God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
Does God love us or what? Before He even created us He knew that we were going to require a time of sleep to rejuvenate and refresh our bodies. It is during times of sleep that our brain can slow down and take a break, our bodies lie still and heal themselves, mussels relax after a hard work day.
There was a time when all work was done during the day, but as a former shift worker I know this is not the case anymore. We may get used to working the night shift, but this goes against the body’s natural circadian rhythm, and individuals have difficulty adjusting to the different sleep and wake schedule. SWSD consists of a constant or recurrent pattern of sleep interruption that results in difficulty sleeping or excessive sleepiness. This disorder is common in people who work non-traditional hours, usually between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.[1]
God put two great lights in the sky, the greater of the two to give us light during the day and that was to be the time we would work and expend energy. He put the lesser of the two lights in the sky to give us light during the night, because He already knew we were going to need the night hours to rest and to have the body repair itself.
I cannot believe there are people who say they believe in God but feel that after He created all there is He is just sitting back to see what will happen, kind of like an ant farm. But I see a God who was so thoughtful and who cared about us so much that He gave us the sun to light and give us warmth during the day and the moon to give us light and allows the earth to cool down a bit during the night.
It it currently spring time in Idaho and the day time temps can run in the mid 80’s so the house warms up . . . a lot! We open the windows to catch whatever breeze there is just to keep it a little cooler in the house compared to the outside temps. Then at night the temperature drops to the low to mid 30’s and when I get up in the morning, because we have left the windows open the temp in the house is around 64. I know you’re asking, “What are you getting at? Well, here it is, if the sun stayed up longer, say the day were 5 or 6 hours longer, the house would continue to heat up and would have a shorter night to cool; we would swelter. I thank God for thinking about us before we were created.
The other thing that I noticed in this passage taken from the NIV is this: God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth. Talk about dark! A vault is usually sealed in such a way that no light or anything else can get in and so it is pitch black. This passage says that the sky, or our universe was so dark it was like a vault, but God placed the sun, moon and stars into this void, this vault like darkness. Wow! He thought of everything and so I believe He is not just sitting back waiting to see what will happen. God is actively involved in our lives and loves us so much that He not only gave us the lights to separate the night from the day and give us a time for work and a time for rest, but He also sent His Son to carry our sins, as His own, to the cross.
I don’t know about you but I thank God for the moon, stars, sun, and His Son. How about you?
Just a thought
[1] “Shift Work Sleep Disorder,” Cleveland Clinic, Accessed 2016,
