Don't Get Burned !

In the past couple of weeks I've seen people and heard about others who have gotten badly sunburned out in this hot summer sunshine. I know how it hurts because as a fair-skinned person myself who gets red after even fifteen minutes in the sun, I got "blistered" several times during my teenaged years.

Sunburn can range from just turning really red and hurting for a day or so all the way to having clear, raised blisters, being in severe pain for several days and having fever and chills. And then comes the peeling skin! Ewww. I can remember just pulling off sheets of dead skin after being sunburned! Sometimes it can even leave scars if it's bad enough.

With all the information about sunburn and cancer we've had access to for the past several years, we really have no excuse to let ourselves get in that predicament now. (Unless of course some kind of unexpected emergency comes up and we have to be out in the sun longer than expected.) And it's strange but most of the time we don't even realize we're burning until it's TOO LATE !! I've thought about other burns you can get: from a hot object or fire, a carpet burn, a chemical burn, etc. All of these hurt when they burn you. You realize it and get away from it before it can damage you any more than it already has. Not so with sunburn. We are usually enjoying a ball game, a walk, swimming, or some other enjoyable outside activity while the sun is silently beating down on our unprotected skin burning us unawares. The best prevention for sunburn is awareness....when you know you will be outside for an extended period of time this summer---wear sunscreen!

You may be wondering how I'm going to tie some kind of spiritual truth in with this. So this is what I've been thinking: Sunburn is kind of like sin. Just like sunburn happens while we're out having fun and not really feeling the burning rays of the sun, sin happens while we're out having fun and not yet feeling it's destruction. But just wait...you will. Remember, the Bible says there is "pleasure in sin for a season". (Hebrews 11:25) Yes, there is pleasure in sin. But only for a season. Just as sunburn is "seasonal", sin has it's "season" also. And after all the fun is over there is a price to pay. Sometimes it may come with minimum pain. But sometimes the pain, the suffering, the grief, the regret is so agonizing that you may feel it will never go away. And sometimes there will be scars in your life from sin that never do go away! The best prevention for sin? SONscreen !! That's right! When you become a Christian, Jesus Christ...God's SON...lives in you and through the Holy Spirit helps you do right when you are tempted to sin. He protects us. (1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.)

After the pain and peeling of the sunburn is gone , all we have left is the new pink tender skin that has taken its place. God has made our bodies so wonderfully that they have marvelous powers of renewal. (Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.) And in like manner, after the pain and grief of our willful sinfulness has turned to repentance and deliverance, God will cause our spirits to renew as we nourish our minds in Truth...the Bible.
(John 17: 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.)


So my advice for us all during these scorching summer days ahead is twofold:

1...Wear Sunscreen!

2...Have SONscreen !


May God bless you!


Marilyn