Sunshine

 Once there was a man who felt very insecure. He was a nervous type. People tried to help him.  He refused to tell people what he was worried about. But energy drained out of him because of his worry. Talking with him, friends wanted to put him at ease and make him comfortable.  But year after year he continued to live a Trauma Tilly life.  

He was tight-lipped about the source of his stress. But eventually it leaked out.  Eventually he admitted what was so stressful.  

He was stressed about sunshine.  When finally cornered, he was angry that he had been exposed.  “What,” friends wanted to know, “was so stressful about sunshine?”

Only with a lot of coaxing did he finally admit—and then only to his closest friends–that he feared that while the sunshine could effortlessly shine on someone 6 feet tall or even five feet tall, this man was not sure it could shine far enough down to reach his 4 foot 8 inch body.  

This sounded ridiculous and he knew people would think of him as all the more weird. He was right—some snickered. Others were stunned at the foolishness of such a concern. He withdrew into another room until friends came to force him to engage in a discussion about his anxiety.  

And just who is this one who has this irrational fear? You. Me. Most of us. 

Are we afraid the sunshine won’t reach us?  The sun shines 93 million miles to reach the earth.  So whether a person is 4 foot, 8 inches or 6 foot 10 inches tall, the sunshine will reach both. The sun has the strength to shine another foot or two as a given person may need.

How foolish to feel insecure, nervous, less important or less loved than others. It’s like being nervous that the sunshine can’t reach down to them.   

The difference between a brilliant savant and a mentally handicapped person is like the Son shining a bit further to reach a 4 foot, 8 inch man.  All of us are enormously needy before the Living God.