"The sun is a glorious emblem of God, in his relation to all who know him and trust in him. It seems to exist only to dispense. Its beams know no intermission. They are intercepted but never withheld.
We need only that we should be turned towards them, and that there should be no veil before our eyes, no clouds in our atmosphere. They enlighten, they warm, they vivify, they gladden.
Their profusion is amazing. One hundred millions of square miles of these beams descend each moment on the earth and vanish in the same moment to make way for another similar supply. The sun opens to us the door of the universe, so to speak, and reveals creation. Without it we could neither have the knowledge or the benefit of anything that is."
— George Bowen (1816–1888) · The White Sadhu of Bombay✦ It Seems to Exist Only to Dispense
Only to give. That is the sun's entire purpose. It does not collect. It does not withhold. It does not calculate who deserves light and who does not. It exists only to pour out — endlessly, continuously, without negotiation or interruption.
Bowen stacks the qualities with the precision of a man who watched many sunrises in Bombay. Its beams know no intermission — they never stop. Not for a single moment in the history of the earth has the sun stopped shining. Every dark night is an interception, not a withholding. The sun did not decide to stop — the earth turned. The source never changed.
"Its beams are intercepted but never withheld."
— George Bowen · Every darkness is a blockage on our end, not a refusal on God's end✦ Intercepted but Never Withheld
This is the sentence of the morning. Intercepted — by clouds, by walls, by the earth's own rotation, by the things we place between ourselves and the light. But never withheld. The sun has never once chosen not to shine. Every darkness we experience is a blockage on our end, not a refusal on God's end.
Yesterday Bowen taught that faith provides the channel for God's power. Today he teaches the other side — God's light is never withheld. The problem is never the source. The problem is always the interception. The clouds in our atmosphere. The veil before our eyes. The couching of the moral vision he spoke of two days ago — the cataract that must be removed so the eye can receive what was always there.
"We need only that we should be turned towards them." Turned. Not deserving. Not qualified. Not theologically trained. Just — turned. Facing the source. The way Brazilian children are carried to the park and placed in the morning sun. They do not understand photosynthesis. They do not know about vitamin D. They are simply placed in the light and the light does its work — preventing disease, keeping them healthy.
Exists Only to Dispense
The sun does not collect. It does not withhold. It does not calculate. It pours out — endlessly, continuously. One hundred million square miles of beams every moment, vanishing to make way for the next supply. Lamentations 3:23 written in physics.
Intercepted, Never Withheld
Every dark night is an interception, not a withholding. The source never changes. The problem is never God's unwillingness but our obstruction — clouds, veils, the earth turned away. The light waits. It has always been waiting.
Turned Towards the Light
Brazilian children carried to the park for the morning sun. They don't understand it. They are simply placed in it. Five years of morning devotions before dawn is the same act — the soul turning herself toward the source before the clouds of the day can form.
"All this is gloriously suggestive of the God of all grace. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are brought into the path of his beams. Our understandings are enlightened, our hearts are warmed, our spirits are gladdened. We begin to get the good of God's creation. We are in 'marvellous light.'
And as the natural sun visits all things, yet gives itself wholly to each, makes the whole earth prolific for the benefit of each, the heavens and earth beautiful for the joy of each, so does God grant to each of his children an infinite fulness of love, and gives himself with all his perfections, in wondrous union to each beloved one."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)✦ Wholly to Each
Bowen moves from the natural sun to the God it represents — and says something that should stop us completely. The sun visits all things, yet gives itself wholly to each. That is the paradox only God can hold. The supply is not divided — it is multiplied. Each beloved one receives an infinite fulness, not a fraction.
No one gets a diminished portion because someone else is also receiving. The sun that shines on the whole earth shines on you as if you were the only one standing in it. And the God of all grace gives Himself — with all His perfections, in wondrous union — to each.
And Bowen says we begin to get the good of God's creation. Begin. After all the mornings before dawn, after all the years of faith, we are still beginning. The sun has been shining for billions of years and we are still discovering what its light reveals. That is not discouraging. That is the infinite fulness — there is always more.
"The infinite fulness of love — when you begin to think, that is all there is for me... more comes to me and more devoted I become. Not infallible, but devoted."
Not infallible. Devoted. The 500 denari soul does not become flawless under the sun. She becomes more turned toward it. The profusion does not produce perfection — it produces devotion. The response to infinite fulness is not a claim to have received it all but a deeper turning toward the source that never runs out.
Six days of Bowen in Normandy. From as your days so shall your strength be to the surgeon and the assassin to strength made perfect in weakness to the couching of the moral vision to the channels of faith to the Lord God is a sun. Each morning building on the last. The eye healed. The strength supplied. The channel widened. The shroud pierced. And now — the sun. The source that was behind every morning all along.
Intercepted but never withheld. That is the thread running through the whole week. Every trial, every thicker shroud, every furnace — an interception, not a withholding. The sun never stopped. The Potter never left the wheel. The Surgeon never put down the blade before the healing was complete. And the soul that kept turning toward the light — before dawn, in physical pain, on Sword Beach, crying for her mother — that soul is still beginning to get the good of God's creation. There is always more.