Turn and face the Son

The Maori people group is of Polynesian-Melanesian descent, and many of them live in New Zealand. One of their proverbs is “Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.” What a great thought for us to make the conscious choice to face the sun and to leave behind the problems of our yesterdays. That proverb becomes much more exciting if we change the spelling of “sun” to “Son.” Then it becomes, “Turn your face to the Son and the shadows will fall behind you.”

One of our best-known hymns has a similar thought. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” Helen Lemmel wrote both the words and music to that hymn around 1922. She was born in England and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was 12 years old. They lived for a time in Wisconsin. She studied vocal music in Germany, became a vocal music teacher at Moody Bible Institute and worked with Billy Sunday for more than 10 years.

The first verse of the hymn says, “O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s a light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free!” If you’d like to hear a medley edition of “Where You Belong/Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” by the Newsboys, play the video on the right.

When we choose to put our focus on the sun/Son, our heartaches or difficulties do not necessarily disappear. It is just that our point of vision changes. Then we can see what is good and positive in the world around us and in the Heavenly world ahead.

This is probably an American proverb: “A day without sunshine is like ... night!” And we can always choose to see sunshine/Sonshine, no matter what the weather is like outside. We would never want to live totally in the night or in the darkness of sin for the rest of our lives.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” As you experience this blessed season of the year, may the gift of sunshine/Sonshine be your greatest gift.