Be the Moon. One summer night I was doing a little stargazing and drawing when I was suddenly hit with a thought that has stuck with me ever since. You see, I was lying in the bed of my truck in a field in the middle of nowhere simply enjoying the night with my paper app in hand. Not a cloud in the sky, light breeze from the south, temperature hovering around 75. It would seem to be a great night for stargazing but there was one more factor that played a roll: the Moon, Earthās only natural satellite. On this particular night it was nearing itās peak of a full moon and the light reflecting off of it was overpowering that of the stars behind it, so I wasnāt so much stargazing as I was sky gazing. The few stars that remained to challenge the moon on this night are the ones that appear the brightest on the moonless nights. Yet, as luminous as they seem when unchallenged they pale in comparison to the full moon. My mind is easily drawn back to all the nights that we ride four wheelers on these moonlit nights with no headlights or walk down the road with no lights. All made possible by the light of the full moon. But what of the nights when the stars are the only lights in the sky? We would not dare venture out without our headlights or flashlights to guide us on those nights. On these nights we are left with much weaker man-made lights to guide our way. The distance we can see is far less and the view is not nearly as spectacular as when the moon lights our path. Now back to that thought that struck me. I love stargazing, spending time in the woods, camping, kayaking, etc because thatās when Iām drawn closer to God. God is a little easier for me to reach when Iām lost among his raw handiwork. As all these afore mentioned thoughts strolled through my mind I had been drawing with no endgame in mind; just drawing to see what would end up on my screen. I had drawn a star filled sky with a moon, not a full moon but one that was three quarters full. It was this moment when the thought that has stuck with me came into my mind and as it did I wrote it across the starry sky I had drawn. āBe the Moon. The Moon reflects the light of the Sun to all those who are lost in the dark.ā As soon as I placed that final period upon the page the thoughts in my head began racing. It was one of those 5 second thoughts that takes 10 minutes to fully reexamine and understand and even longer to tell someone else. āBe the Moon.ā Thatās a weird phrase, what does that even mean? Well, letās start with the Sun. The Sun, itās our worldās everything and we canāt live without it. The sun is just under an estimated 93 million miles away from us and yet as far away as that seems it still is the lifeblood of our world. There has never been anything that has appeared to me as a more perfect parallel than that of the Sun and the Son. We cannot live without our Savior, Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus walked upon this Earth preaching to every man and woman spreading his message to every corner of the world. This was the period of daylight, while Jesus was on this world it was a time of light, direct and powerful. We, as a world, were in the direct presence of God. We could see him just as we see one another and we could hear him and see his works here directly with us. This was the period of daylight. Then the darkness came when He ascended back into Heaven. This was the point when it was laid on our shoulders to spread His message. This is where the Moon comes in. The Moon orbits this world, set in itās track to orbit Earth until the end of itās time. Essentially a slave to the world or at least it could have beenā¦ The Moon was given a gift though. It was given a special ability; It was given the ability to reflect the light of the Sun. When Jesus ascended back into Heaven the Sun disappeared over the horizon leaving us in a period of night. Iām not talking about a dark at 5pm and light at 6am, no a night that has lasted for over 2000 years. The people of this world were left to stumble through this world in darkness but the Moon with itās gift was given the opportunity to change that. It alone was given the ability to reflect the light of the Sun to all those who are lost in the dark. Just as the Sun and the Son parallel, we as followers of Christ parallel with the Moon. We are the Moon. Each and every one of us has been given the ability to shed the light of the Son to all the world. This ability comes to us through the gift of Godās Word. The Bible allows us to see God and share his message. It gives us that angle on the world just as the full moon has the perfect angle to see the Sun and reflect its light upon the dark. The Moon even with itās awesome gift goes through phases. It waxes and wanes and is full and at times itās new. We all start out like the new moon with the world between us and Son of God, reflecting no light of the Sun simply living in the shadow of the world. Then we are given the Bible and we slowly move out of the shadow or start the waxing phase of the Moonās cycle. We are slowly increasing our ability to reflect the Light of God upon the World. We slowly work to become a full Moon and reflect God has best as we possibly can. This is our purpose. We reflect the light of the Son to all those who are lost in the dark. The world is lost in the dark. Everyone whether they know it or not is searching for light. Some create their own such as flashlights and lanterns. They marvel at what they have come up with but their creation is dim in comparison to the light the moon can reflect and it quickly fades. Some look to the stars when they are left without a Moon. They marvel at them and admire the starsā self illuminating light that sheds no light upon the world but merely serves as entertainment. The stars here remind me of sin. They are countless and can be entrancing to those lost in the dark who think that the starās self illuminating light is as good as it gets. We cannot fault those who are entranced and have never been shown the gift that we have received. We are not called to judge those who are tangled up in sin and have not yet found their way to Christ. We are told this in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, āFor what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore āput away from yourselves the evil person.ā ā They are searching for something to fill a void but canāt find the piece that fits. It is our God given task to show them the light. āAnd the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.āJohn 1:5 We are called to be the light that darkness cannot comprehend. Yet, we are human and we do make mistakes and at some point we will all falter and begin to wane and lose our ability to reflect the light of the Lord. Some of us even falter to the point of becoming like the new moon but we, unlike the moon, do not have to run on this cycle. If we begin to falter we do not have to revert to the new Moon phase before we can return to our best and brightest as the full Moon phase. So I ask, what phase are you? New, Full? are you waxing or waning? Be the Moon. The Moon reflects the light of the Son to all those who are lost in the dark.
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