Chapter 2 - The Sun

The night was almost over, and Daddy and Momma owl were getting ready to put the children down to bed for the day. The sun was just starting to rise, and the little owls were tucked in nice and cozy in their part of the nest. As Momma and Daddy were giving kisses and hugs good morning, David, who loved to ask questions, turned his head toward the east, where the sun was rising. As he watched the sun begin to rise, a question popped into his head.

“Daddy and Momma, whoooo made the sun?” David asked.

“Whooo do you think made the sun, David?” Momma Owl replied.

Before David could answer, Hope screeched out in an excited voice, “I know, I know! God made the sun! He made everything in the whole world! He made the clouds, and the animals, and the stars, and the elephants, and the trees, and…and…everything!”

“Hey,” David said, noticeably a little perturbed. “That’s what I was going to say!”

“Sorry, David,” Hope apologized. “I get really excited when I think about all of the beautiful things God has made!”

“That’s OK,” David said. “I understand. I think God’s creation is really, really cool too.”

“Well, you’re both right,” Daddy Owl said with a smile. “God is indeed the One who made the sun, the moon, all of the stars, and everything else in all creation. And David you’re right,” he added. “His creation is really cool too. One of my favorite things to do is watch the sun come up in the morning while sipping a good cup of hot chocolate, just before bedtime.”

The words “hot chocolate” caught little Judah’s attention. He jumped up and began to run around the nest screeching, “Hot chockie! Hot chockie! Hot chockie!”

David and Hope began to laugh, and then jumped out of bed to join little Judah in his race around the nest. Momma Owl, on the other hand, was raising her owl-brow at Daddy Owl. Getting little Judah down and settled for bed hadn’t been easy. Daddy Owl knew what Momma owl was thinking. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the beak and chuckled. Momma Owl’s frown slowly turned into a smile. 

Then partly laughing and partly sighing, Momma Owl said, “Yes, I agree, God’s creation is amazing and very beautiful. But children, have your Daddy and I ever told you about what God is speaking through the sun, moon, and stars?”

Judah kept running around the nest, but when David and Hope heard Momma say this, they stopped in their tracks and began staring at their parents with a puzzled look on their faces. 

Then David asked, “What do you mean? Are you saying that God is using the sun, and moon, and stars to say something to us?”

Daddy Owl replied, “Yes, David, that is exactly what your Momma means. Every morning when the sun rises in the east, and every night when the moon and stars come out, God is telling us a very important message. In Psalm 19, King David says: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.’”

“Whooaa!” David and Hope said at the same time, with their eyes open wide. Then Judah, who loved to repeat his brother and sister, chimed in, “whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.”

“Will you tell us more?! Will you tell us more?! Please!” David and Hope began to beg.

All eyes were on Momma Owl. “Well,” she said with a grin, “since it seems that everyone is now wide awake…and since the hot chocolate is almost finished heating up,” she said as Daddy Owl winked at her, “I suppose this morning we can all have a little cup of hot chocolate and stay up a little later to watch the sunrise and talk about what God is saying to us through the sun. But, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow night to talk about the moon and the stars. How does that sound?”

“Yeah!” the children shouted together.

Then Daddy Owl went to get the hot chocolate, and David and Hope sat down in front of Momma Owl while Judah climbed up onto her lap. As Daddy Owl poured the hot chocolate into their cups, Momma Owl began by asking the children a question.

“Tell me, what do you know about the sun?” she asked.

David answered first, saying, “Well, when it is dark outside at night, you can only see a few things from the forest around us. But when the sun rises at the beginning of the day, there is a lot of light, and you can see many things, even things that are very far away. You can even see Ant Hill way over there across the river! When the sun comes up, there is no more darkness, and everything becomes visible.”

Then Hope said, “And, the sun is really, really bright, and it is really, really hot. It’s so bright that it even hurts my eyes if I try to look straight at it!”

“Very good, David and Hope,” Daddy Owl said. “The Bible teaches us that this present age is an evil age full of darkness. In this age of darkness, Satan goes around trying to hurt everyone. He uses lies to try to get all the animals of the forest and all the people of the world to disobey God. When someone listens to the voice of Satan and disobeys God, it is like they are walking around in a dark room that has no light. They keep bumping into the walls and tripping over their feet because they are blind and can’t see where they are going. Yes, my little ones, Satan’s voice is a voice of deception and darkness. He even tries to get little owls to forget about God’s light and do things that God doesn’t like. Whenever we listen to Satan and disobey God, it is called sin. And the more we sin, the darker this wicked age becomes.”

“Wow, I don’t like Satan at all,” Hope said with a serious look on her face. “And sin sounds awful, too.”

“It is very awful, Hope,” Daddy Owl replied, shaking his head with a sad sound in his voice. “Sin makes God’s creation not work the way God wants it to work. Because of sin, there are many bad things that are messing up God’s beautiful creation in this age of darkness. In fact, sin is the reason that death first entered the world. In the beginning, God told Adam and Eve not to eat from a certain tree in the Garden of Eden called ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ He told them that if they disobeyed Him and ate that fruit, their punishment would be death. Well, one day Adam and Eve ate that fruit, and death entered the world and began eating up all of God’s good creation.”

“But,” Momma Owl chimed in, “that is not the end of the story. There is a great hope as well.” 

“Hey, that’s my name!” Hope said with a beaming smile.

“That’s right,” Daddy Owl said with a twinkle in his eye. “Your name gives us courage to never stop following Jesus with all of our hearts, even when life in this age of darkness gets really difficult.”

Then Momma Owl continued, “Every morning when the sun rises, the light of the sun shines over all the land as far as the eye can see, and it drives the darkness away. In the same way, Jesus’ kingdom is a kingdom of light. When Jesus comes back, His kingdom will destroy sin, death, and Satan’s kingdom of darkness forever.” 

Then looking down at David and Hope, Daddy Owl said, “The other day we were talking about the time that John the apostle saw the resurrected Jesus while on the island of Patmos. Do you remember what John said about Jesus’ face?”

Hope answered, “He said that Jesus’ face was shining…hey, brighter than the sun!”

“And do you remember,” Daddy Owl asked again, “what did Jesus say would happen to the righteous in His kingdom? He said that in His coming kingdom, they would shine like the…”

“Like the sun!” David said proudly, completing Daddy Owl’s sentence. Then David continued, “So, when we see the sun, God is speaking to us about the Second Coming, the resurrection from the dead, and the kingdom of God? That’s the gospel!”

“Yes,” Momma Owl answered, “that’s exactly right. God uses the sun to teach us about the shining glory and bright light that shines out from Jesus’ resurrected body now, and which will also shine out from our resurrected bodies when Jesus comes back to raise us from the dead. When Jesus comes back, He will come down from the sky shining brighter than the sun. And when He does, He will speak the word of life, and will raise His people from the dead. When Jesus comes back, the light of His life in the resurrection will conquer the darkness of death that came into the world when Adam and Eve first sinned.  Death won’t destroy God’s good creation anymore. We will receive brand new bodies that will shine brighter than the sun forever and ever, just like Jesus’ body does. Every day when we see the sun come up, God is reminding us to never stop following Jesus. If we keep trusting and obeying Jesus, even through the hard times, then when Jesus comes back, we will shine like the sun with Him in the resurrection. It will be the beginning of a new Day. It will be the dawning of the kingdom of the Messiah.”

“Wow,” said Hope as she began to yawn. “I can’t even look at the sun without hurting my eyes. And we’ll shine brighter than that in our resurrected bodies?”

“That’s right,” Momma Owl said slowly, gently nuzzling Hope’s beak with her own. “Even brighter…than…that.”

Then Daddy Owl said, “There is just one more thing I need to tell you, children, about the sun, and then it is time for bed.”

“What is it, Daddy?” David and Hope asked, their eyes growing droopy with sleep.

Judah climbed up onto Daddy Owl’s lap, and Daddy Owl spread his wings over him and gave him a big owl hug. Then, as Daddy Owl began to speak, a tear suddenly appeared in the corner of his eye and began to trickle down his face. Then lifting up his eyes, he gazed deep into the sky. 

“We need to pray,” he said in a gentle but serious voice, “for those who are still disobeying God, and who still haven’t repented of their sins and believed the good news of Jesus. Yes, we need to pray for them with all of our hearts, and we need to share the gospel with them. The Bible says that those who refuse to repent and obey God are like dry grass or flowers. What happens to dry grass and flowers when there is no rain and the fire of the burning sun gets too hot for them?”

But before Daddy Owl could get an answer, he looked down and saw three little owls fast asleep. He leaned down and kissed each of them on the beaks. Then he whispered a prayer over them: “Father, in Jesus’ name I ask You to help these little ones hold on tight, tight, tight to Jesus, without giving up, until the Day dawns and the light of Your kingdom fills the whole earth.”