By the Light of the Moon

Full moonWhen Mom and Dad were newlyweds in the early 1940’s, Dad was called 1000 miles away on a rare business trip. Mom could hardly stand the thought of him leaving but came up with an idea. At 10:00 each night they’d both step outside and look up. As Mom put it, “Our eyes will meet on the moon.”

Rumor has it when the moon is full, women go into labor more often and traffic accidents increase, along with irrational behavior of all kinds. I don’t know if that’s true, but science has confirmed something that is: the moon affects ocean tides. I suppose if it can tug on sea water, it can influence the water in our brains, too.

Each month when the moon is full, I look forward to Jack’s midnight walk. If the sky is clear, I don’t even need a flashlight, especially during the winter when the trees are bare. Moonlight illuminates the road just enough to see. And when snow covers the ground, moonlight bounces off the white surface so brightly, it casts shadows much like the sun except that the neighborhood glows in silver.

God wants us to appreciate what he’s made. He doesn’t want us to love the moon, stars or sun to the point of worship and makes it clear such adoration is wrong. But he does want us to notice and attribute our amazing world to his doing.

I wonder how it must have been for God just before he created the Universe with its phenomenal heavenly bodies. Did he spend time planning what he was about to do? Did the Father, Son and Spirit enjoy round-tabling ideas about the not-yet-formed heavens and earth? Because God is someone who works in microscopic detail as well as in mega-ways, I like to think he enjoyed the whole process, anticipating, planning and doing.

If he approached the heavens and earth with eagerness, what must he have thought before making human beings? Although we’re like grains of beach sand compared to stars, sun and moon, we’re not insignificant to God. As a matter of fact, he sees us as the high point of his creation, the only thing eternal. He gave us each a soul, and in this we’ve been made “like him,” an astonishing reality.

It could be that the moon serves as God’s object lesson for us, not as a nightly link between separated newlyweds but as an example of reflection. Just like the moon mirrors the sun, we’re to reflect our Creator, a challenging assignment but a most worthy calling.

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?(Psalm 8:3-4)

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. Great praise for God’s rearranging of the weather forecast that provided a beautiful fall day for Stina’s wedding this weekend! Thank you for your prayers!
  2. Chemo resumes tomorrow; please pray about finding a good vein for the infusion and for continued control of nausea.
  3. Pray for a replenishing of energy and stamina.