The sun is the most important celestial body in our solar system. Its radius is about 695,000 kilometers with a diameter of around 1.39 million kilometers. This is 109 times greater than that of Earth. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, roughly three-quarters of the Sun’s mass consists of hydrogen 73%; the rest is mostly helium 25%, with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron. The Sun is actually a star referred to as a yellow dwarf even though its light is actually white. The yellowish color emerges when its rays pass through the Earth’s atmosphere so from earth appears orange/yellow in colour. The Sun is by far the brightest object in the Earth’s sky, about 13 billion times brighter than the next brightest star, Sirius. It is the only natural source of light in the entire solar system. It takes eight minutes and twenty seconds for light to reach Earth from the Sun. The average distance from the Sun to the Earth is about 150 million km. Light travels at 300,000 km per second so dividing one by the other gives you 500 seconds or eight minutes and twenty seconds.
However, the Sun’s influence on our lives is all-encompassing it is vital for the earth. It drives life on our planet and without it, we would not exist. Plants and animals alike depend on the Sun for nourishment. The plants make food through the process of photosynthesis. Together with water and carbon dioxide, the Sun helps plants make glucose. Glucose is a type of sugar that serves as food for plants. Aside from that, another product of photosynthesis is oxygen, which the plants give off. In turn, we humans inhale oxygen, which is very vital for us to live. This is why plants are often called the “lungs of the world.” Plants in the oceans like phytoplankton and kelp also use sunlight for photosynthesis. Through them, the ocean produces more than half of the oxygen in the world. The ocean also absorbs a big part of carbon dioxide on Earth. The Sun is also the main driver for the weather system on Earth, as well as the currents in our oceans. The heat from the Sun is distributed unevenly on Earth. Areas around the equator receive more direct sunlight so they are warmer than places near the poles. The heat from the equator moves towards the poles and produces currents. This movement transports nutrients in the oceans and helps regulate the climate.
Another part of the sun is its sunbeams. They are beams of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. The sun and the sunbeams are co-existent one to another. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of particle-scattered sunlight are essentially parallel shafts separated by darker shadowed volumes. Their apparent convergence in the sky is a visual illusion from linear perspective just like the apparent convergence of parallel lines on a long straight road or hallway at a distant vanishing point.
Even though the Sun is the most important star for us, it is just an ordinary star one of the billions of stars in the Milky Way alone and yet it teaches us many truths concerning God.
The Bible teaches us that God is light and just like the sun is vital for earth so is a personal relationship with God vital for man. God is the life giver and sustainer just like the sun. The sunbeams remind us of Jesus Christ as they come from the sun. With our eye, we see the beams or rays from the sun not the actual sun. Christ Jesus is the visible rays of who God is. Christ is the light of the world because God the father is light and his beams of love, peace and forgiveness shine through Jesus Christ. In the gospel of John chapter 14 verse 9 Jesus says unto Philip one of his disciples, ‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;’ When we look at Christ we see God the father, and Christ is the light, the energy and the giver of eternal life for the soul.
P. Pilgrim pilgrimway101@yahoo.com
