The Town That Borrowed Its Sunlight

Rjukan, Norway, sits at the bottom of a narrow valley so deep that from September to March, direct sunlight never reaches the town. For over a century, residents lived in shadow half the year, hiking to the mountaintops just to feel the sun on their faces.

Then in 2013, engineers installed three giant computer-controlled mirrors on the mountainside above town. The mirrors tracked the winter sun and reflected a beam of light down into the town square. For the first time, residents gathered in a six-hundred-square-meter patch of real sunlight in the middle of winter. Children tilted their faces upward. Strangers smiled at one another. Some wept.

But even then, the light was borrowed. Reflected. Limited to one small plaza. Step ten feet in any direction and you were back in shadow.

Every act of worship we know works something like those mirrors. Our churches, our hymns, our sacraments — they catch the glory of God and reflect it into the valleys where we live. And thank God for them. But they are still reflections. Still partial. Still limited.

Revelation 21 promises something Rjukan's mirrors never could — a city where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb ARE the light. No mirrors needed. No temple required. No corner left in shadow. John saw a place where God's unmediated glory floods every street, every face, every moment. The nations walk by that light, and there is no more night.

One day, the reflections give way to the Reality.