When I decide to study the laws that govern and influence my health, I enter the boundless world of the microcosm of which I am made. If someone looks at me with ordinary eyes, he will see only my body and form a superficial impression of me. But the eyes of faith and medical science penetrate beneath the surface and help us understand how wonderfully I am made within and how harmoniously my organs work together.
And if we take a microscope and begin examining all my components through it, an astonishing picture of the universe hidden within an ordinary human being appears before us.
If we then take an even more powerful microscope that allows us to see everything of which I am made, an entire galaxy of complex structures and connections will open before us. All of it lives, moves continually, and exists. The Author of this astonishing masterpiece called a human being is our Heavenly God, Who created me in His image and, through faith in Him, imparts His likeness to me.
This entire microcosm within me operates according to its own strict and impartial rules and laws, which protect my body.
God desires that the happiness I build upon His principles of conduct and relationships not be darkened by my personal illnesses or premature death. My Designer wants me to be happy while living in a healthy body and wants my little house of happiness to be cozy, warm, and welcoming. He longs for every good thought and wonderful revelation to find a place and a response in my heart, which will always remain open to God’s abundant blessings.
Every loving mother cares about her children being healthy and happy beside her, and she is ready to sacrifice everything—even herself—to achieve this goal, if only her children may be well. This example reveals the truth of how tenderly God cares for His children and how wisely He reveals His will to those who desire to know it.
But God has an enemy who offers his own laws in order to give people temporary pleasure and take away their happiness and health.
Being healthy is a heroic achievement in our time and a challenge to the entire world. Although people talk a great deal about health, the purpose of such conversations often amounts to enabling them to sin even more.
One distinctive feature of the laws of health is that they are impartial and operate regardless of a person’s faith, carrying within themselves the blessings of health. God sends rain and sunshine upon the righteous and the unrighteous, and evil people sometimes enjoy excellent health and live long lives. But the blessing of health does not save the soul; it makes life easier and more interesting and opens many opportunities for growth.
A person who goes to a hospital for an examination has thousands of plans and is ready to carry them out as his strength allows, but someone who has been admitted to a medical facility has only one desire—to leave it as soon as possible, and to leave healthy.
The third law of health: Sunlight.
A little earlier, we already spoke about the sun and even decided to visit it together with Jesus at some point in Eternity. But it is also worth considering the sun as a source of nourishment for our bodies.
The sun’s rays are streams of light with the special ability to give and sustain life throughout the living world that inhabits the surface of the earth. Because of this light, we can see everything around us, admire the abundance of colors and the diversity of creation, and enjoy warmth and comfort.
Sunlight possesses many beneficial properties that favorably affect human health. The scientific world studies the characteristics of sunlight and continually makes discoveries in this field. The general direction of this new knowledge indicates that sunlight brings irreplaceable benefits to human beings and to all living things. It is unique and unlike anything else. It gladdens the heart and the eyes.
It is also interesting that sunlight contains seven colors, which can paint a rainbow across the sky. The proportionate combination of these colors fills our world with its variety of hues and landscapes.
We see color because rays of light reflect from a surface and convey the object’s spectrum. Through light impulses, this spectrum reaches the retina of the eye and, traveling as electromagnetic waves, transmits all the information about what we see to the brain; the brain then creates the picture before our eyes. And all this happens far more quickly than I have attempted to describe it.
Sunlight promotes healthy blood formation and strengthens the body’s immune system. It improves digestion, kills disease-causing microbes, normalizes metabolism, establishes within my body an entire production system for forming essential vitamins and minerals, transforms and changes the chemical composition of many components of my body, helps prevent depression, promotes healthy sleep, and simply gladdens the heart. People who live in the northern regions of the planet greatly value sunshine and its warmth and are ready to spend any amount of money to bask in its rays at some southern resort. But two weeks a year is not enough to restore the body’s need for sunlight.
What would happen if you were placed in an enclosed space with artificial lighting and given everything you needed? Very soon you would notice your body sending distress signals and your nerves beginning to fail. Illness would come and bring many problems with it. And the cause would be a lack of sunlight.
In recent times, however, with the development of civilization and changes in the climate, unusual diseases have appeared, including skin cancer and allergies to sunlight, which cause many difficulties. Therefore, we hear doctors recommend that we protect ourselves from overheating and sunburn and not look directly at the sun, so that its rays do not enter our eyes and burn them.
And yet we need the sun; we need its light. The eye delights in seeing the sun, and the heart rejoices in this miracle of God.
On the New Earth, our sun will shine seven times brighter, and the moon will shine like the sun. We will live in an abundance of light.
But our souls also need the Sun of Righteousness—Jesus. His absence brings death. The Bible very often compares the greatness and power of God with the heavenly light, helping us understand that the presence of this Light is as essential to a person as the warmth of the sun.
God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus is presented to us as the Eternal Source of true light.
John 1:4–5 says, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
This Light is vitally necessary for every one of us. If I do not allow God’s Light to shine continually in my little house of happiness, gloom will come, and everything will become gray and dreary. To enter a state of darkness, it is enough to remove the Source of Light from myself. Darkness is not sold, nor is it offered as a gift. It naturally comes wherever light departs. Whoever walks in darkness does not know where he is going and does not understand what surrounds him.
For my happiness to be complete and my little house to be comfortable, I need two Heavenly Lights: my God and my sun, so that in their rays my love, happiness, and friendship may be visible to all those around me and available at the first request.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Genesis 1:14–19; Ecclesiastes 11:7; Isaiah 30:26; 60:19–21; Psalm 19:4–6; 74:16; 84:11; 89:36; Ecclesiastes 7:11–12; Song of Solomon 6:10; John 1:1–10; Malachi 4:2; Matthew 5:45; Revelation 21:23; 22:5