The Doctrine of the Sunbeam

 Proverbs 22:6 say's,

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I remember as a very young child having Little Golden Books about the stories in the Bible. I don't know who else may remember them. My favorite one was about Noah and the Ark. I vividly remember sitting at my desk in the first grade and reading it, but mainly looking at the pictures. One picture was of Noah leading animals into the Ark. Another picture showed Noah, and his family. One picture in particular showed the whole landscape and a cloudy sky. Poking through the clouds were sunbeams. This words on the page spoke of God looking down onto the earth. Automatically my first theological thought (although a childish one) was birthed. I naturally assumed that this meant when I saw a sunbeam God was watching me. 

I remember sneaking into the kitchen once with the intention of getting into something while mom wasn't watching, but when I entered into the room the sunbeams were coming through the windows and covering the entire kitchen. I thought to myself, "God is guarding mom's kitchen!" After looking for a path that would not let me touch the sunbeams and not finding one I remember going back into the living room aggravated. 

As long as I wasn't in a sunbeam I could do whatever I pleased, but in a sunbeam, God was watching me. If I went outside to play and was in the sunlight I had to be on my best behavior, which at that age meant sharing my toys and not saying a dirty word. I could go under a shade tree and cuss like a sailor in my thinking, but to do it in direct sunlight was unspeakable, for God could see me!

I lived with this theology in place throughout that summer, but finally decided to ask the wisest theologian I knew at that time - my grandpa.  He told me that God could see EVERYTHING I did! This I remember shook me to the core because I said a lot of bad words in the shade. I then asked my grandpa, "What would God do to me?" Not being known for his velvet touch he replied, "Well, if you don't repent He'll send you to Hell!" I asked him what it meant to repent and he said telling God you are sorry.  So this I did and I felt better. I then tried to behave myself no matter where I was whether standing in a sunbeam, or sitting under a shade tree. 

Later in my life, as an adult and thankfully, a Christian, I was reading in my bible one day and came across this passage in Ephesians chapter 5:

Ephesians chapter 5:8-14

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit^[is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. ¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ¹³ But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. ¹⁴ Therefore He says:

“ Awake, you who sleep, 
  Arise from the dead,
  And Christ will give you light.”