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Vernal Equinox Science Experiment

The vernal equinox is the time when planet earth has tilted such that the sun passes out of the southern hemisphere and becomes dominant again in the northern hemisphere. The light is not always equally distributed around planet earth, and that’s like the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we can feel him tugging hard at us, and we should listen to what he wants us to do. “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him when He is near.” You want to obey the Lord when he is near, or the darkness will come again. This Vernal Equinox Science Experiment can help show you how the sun moves closer to us during certain seasons of the year, and the Son moves closer to us during certain seasons in our lives.

Vernal Equinox Science Experiment
Materials

  • Flashlight
  • Large bouncy ball
  • Masking tape
  • 4 or 5 pictures of children. You can use pictures of your own children or download some or find some in magazines. It doesn’t matter what the context of the picture is, so long as the faces can be clearly distinguished.

Preparation

1. Cut out the pictures of the children so you can see only their faces.

2. Around the bouncy ball, tape a line of masking tape that will act like the equator.

Lesson

Turn on the flashlight but don’t turn out the light.

This flashlight doesn’t look very bright right now. Why not?

Because you have the lights on.

I don’t want to turn out the lights, not really. Because the light in this room stands for something.

Because we are Christians, we always have the light of God, and the love of God. Our world is a little bit brighter because he is always with us. It’s like the light in this room.

However. Turn the flashlight to shine on your students’ faces.

There are times when God’s light can be even brighter, such as when he approaches us individually to help us with something in our lives.

Pick up the bouncy ball. Based on where the masking tape equator line is, hold it by what would be the south pole.

We can understand God and ourselves a little better by understanding what happens at the Vernal Equinox (which is Thursday, March 20). Does anyone know what that is?

(They probably don’t.)

Tilt your ball a little bit so that the southern hemisphere is getting more light from the flashlight than the northern hemisphere.

The vernal equinox is the time when the world has tilted such that the sun passes out of the southern hemisphere…

Slowly tilt the ball so that the equator is centered again.…and becomes dominant again in the northern hemisphere.

Slowly tilt the ball more so that the northern hemisphere is getting more light from the flashlight than the southern hemisphere.

The tilting of the earth…this is why we have warm seasons and cold seasons.

We in North American are in the northern hemisphere. After the vernal equinox, the sun will shine most brightly in our northern hemisphere.  The northern hemisphere will be closest to the sun in the months of June, July, and August. That’s the reason we have summer!

In the fall, the sun will cross back, and our world will go through winter darkness again.

Wiggle the ball back and forth so the hemispheres are each getting light, first one then the other.

The light is not always equally distributed around planet earth. The sun is sort of like the Holy Spirit. While we always have God’s light in our lives, sometimes it feels stronger and warmer than other times.

Put the ball down and pick up pictures of the children. Shine the light across them, then away from them, as you speak.

Great prophets and leaders of the New and Old Testaments were often said to be “full of the spirit” or “full of the Holy Ghost.” This is a time when God draws especially near to a person, maybe even to you. Here are some of the reasons why God draws especially close.

You can shine the light in your students’ faces for effect:

You might be heading into danger—dangerous friends or choices that could turn out badly. You can feel his presence so that you can follow him to safety.

He sees that you’ve had a lot of faith, and he is about to ask you to do something for him. It could be anything, from trying to start a charity in his name, to speaking to a person about his or her poor choices.

He is going to lead you into a better situation. But you have to be particularly tuned in to his kind voice to know what steps to take.

He is going to prepare you for something hard that is coming. He lets you know that something very trying is about to come into your life, but you should remember that he is there and he is still in charge.

Isaiah 55:6 says: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him when He is near.” In other words, if you have an “equinox” in your life—a time where God’s presence feels particularly strong and he’s “shedding light” on things that will help you—listen to him! Do what you feel he is telling you to, and be glad for the experience. Because, just like the earth will tilt again, we too will go back to our normal amount of light from God.

Seek the Lord while He may be found, while his light shines brightly upon you!

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One Comment

  1. The earth is actually further from the sun in the summer than in the winter. The reason our hemisphere has a summer season is because light from the sun strikes us more directly and for a longer time each 24 hour period during our summer months, so heating of the surface of the planet here is more effective than in winter. In a nutshell, it is the tilt of the earth toward or away from the sun which causes seasons, not the earth’s distance from the sun. It affects the angle of the light that reaches us and therefore the intensity of that light. Not unlike how the sunlight is more intense and the day is hotter near midday than in the morning. Light is more direct at midday than in the morning.

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