The Sun's Reach: Heat and Life in Divine Providence

There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.—The moral uses of weather reveal profound truths about Providence. The seasons picture human vicissitudes: the man of wealth yesterday becomes the beggar of today. Heat and cold play essential roles in nature's economy, yet extremes bring suffering. Winter's severity means death to multitudes, while poverty often destroys rather than strengthens character. We deceive ourselves when philosophers claim adversity refines virtue; moral evil traces far more deeply to human poverty than comfortable thinkers imagine.

The sun, chief source of all heat, operates with resistless energy in constant fulfillment of Divine purposes. Not an instant passes without heat performing its appointed duty. The poets understood truth when they associated cold with death and heat with life—for heat proves essential to all existence.

Our dependence upon weather for harvest runs absolute. Every summer brings us within measurable distance of want. The harvest barely provides for one year's needs, making it seemly that we pray to the Lord of the harvest, that our garners may be full.

Practical wisdom follows: Earthly provision is legitimate to desire—cheap affectation despises needful wealth. Recognize the connection between circumstance and condition. Most crucially, understand that spiritual life, no less than physical, depends upon heat—upon the warmth of Elohim's sustaining presence in individual souls and in the covenant community.