when God is the sun

St Ambrose talks to us today about how we can't hide from God in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says that God is like the sun. The warms up everything, even the parts of our houses that are closed up to the light.

And he goes on to say that just like we can't hide from the sun, in the same way, we can't hide from God. He will find us out. He can't be fooled. We should confess everything to Him, because He already knows.

But there is a flip side to this coin, and it's a far more positive one. It's something that I've read about in the writings of people like Brian McLaren and Robert Barron. And just today, I heard Fulton Sheen talk about it in a YouTube video. It's another comparison of God to the sun. It says that God shines His blessings on everyone, not just people who believe in Him. He is like the sun and the rain, falling on the just and the unjust alike.

And the take away lesson from that, I think, is that God is already at work in the lives of every person on the planet. No matter how much they might say they're an atheist, or that God is just an imaginary friend or a spaghetti monster, it doesn't negate the fact that God is working in their life. So when we start talking to people about Him, whether we're talking to a Christian or an antiChristian, we know that God is already at work in their lives. We just need to find where it is, and "fan the flame." Maybe use a magnifying glass, like bad kids do to ants, and intensify the light of the "sun" into a beam that starts a flame of God's love in their hearts.

God, thanks for working in the lives of every person on the planet. Please help us to fan each other's flames.

PS I know that grammatically, it is arguable that "Upon whom does God's sunlight fall?" is "more correct", but that sounds too formal and ostentatious to me.