The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer
As a sunbeam perishes when cut off from the sun, so man apart from God would pass back into the void of nothingness from which he first leaped at the creative call.
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This comes from his 1961 classic The Knowledge of the Holy, specifically the chapter where he discusses how God is the only being who is truly self-sufficient. Tozer uses this imagery to dismantle the idea that we are independent. We often live like we are batteries that can hold our own charge separate from the source, but he argues we are actually like rays of light. A sunbeam only exists as a continuous action of the sun. If the source stops shining, the beam doesn't just fade. It ceases to be. It is a humbling reminder that we don't just owe God for our creation in the past. We owe Him for our breath right now. As the Scripture says: "For in him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28, KJV)
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