"[The sun's]... going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Psa. 19:6.
What a wonderful thing sunshine is! As the above verse tells us there is no place on earth where it does not reach. A wise Creator God has made the sun's 93-million-mile distance from the earth exactly right to meet life's requirements. No life could exist without it.
The seasons are also part of His divine plan. The earth's axis being tilted 23½ degrees gives us the seasons. As the sun shines more directly over the northern hemisphere, summer is experienced while it is winter in the southern hemisphere. As it slowly tilts the other way the seasons reverse, thus providing winter and summer all over the world.
For human as well as animal and plant life to exist, the earth must be shielded from the fierce heat and deadly ultraviolet radiations of the sun. The Creator did not neglect this. He has (so to speak) wrapped several great blankets, mostly invisible, around the earth for this purpose.
The atmosphere we breathe, called the troposphere, is the blanket of which we are most aware. It contains the oxygen which is required for life. It also contains nitrogen, carbon dioxide, moisture, dust, salt, ash and smoke from volcanoes and smokestacks, etc. In addition to the protective value the troposphere contributes, it is the impurities in this atmosphere that cause beautiful sunsets and sunrises which are a part of the beauties of God's creation.
We do not have enough space here to give detail about all the blankets, but beginning about 10 miles above the earth is a 30-mile-thick area called the stratosphere. In it is a 10-mile layer of ozone gas known as the chemosphere. This is one of the important shields against ultraviolet rays as well as harmful cosmic particles flying through space.
Above the chemosphere lie two other zones called the lower and upper ionospheres. In the upper one most meteors that threaten the earth burn to ash, making a brilliant "shooting star" display. The ionosphere keeps radio waves from drifting off into space and reflects them back to the earth. More important, much radiation from the sun is turned back here.
Finally, the greatest blanket of all, the exosphere, starts about 200 miles above the earth and reaches some 35,000 miles into space. This is the first line of defense against gamma rays and X rays emitted by the sun in such great quantities that life on earth could not exist if its protection were missing.
Most of us rarely ever think about the wonderful way God has provided, such vital protection from the sun's deadly radiations, except perhaps when we have been careless and experienced a painful sunburn. These blankets around the world are part of His care expressed in the Bible, "Thou hast made... the earth, and all things that are therein... and Thou preservest them all." Neh. 9:66Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. (Nehemiah 9:6).
Have you ever thanked Him for His loving care over you-one small person in this vast universe?