Our pastor recently told us that his daughter asked him a fascinating question the other night. They were walking outside after dark and the little girl asked her father, “Daddy, why does the moon exist?” Hmmm, interesting question…
At first glance, the moon doesn’t really do much, does it? Yes, it does factor into the tides rising and falling, but surely God could’ve purposed something else to do that. Take that ‘job’ away from it, and we just have a big, old rock that goes around and around the planet for no obvious reason.
Except to shed light over the darkness.
Without the moon, think of how dark a night gets. The stars, however many and however large they might be, give no visual help to us. Yet there must be something special to it, right? After all, this seemingly insignificant part of God’s space package was designed on the fourth day of creation (see Genesis 1:14-19). The moon is named and given purpose on that day. “…to rule over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.” And suddenly, this piece of space rock had a pretty important job… to overcome the darkness. Yet despite this tall order, God made the moon completely incapable of giving light. Think about that. The moon itself cannot GIVE light…
The moon can only REFLECT light- it has to get the actual light from someplace else.
Enter the sun- another pretty important design feature from day four, and this particular orb is able to actually self-create light. The moon is entirely dependent on the self-generating power station of the sun. Its light remains steadfast at all times because the sun always is shining. In every part of the world, every nook and cranny of the earth, somewhere, the moon is reflecting brightly. It may be a crescent, it may be waxing, it may be full… but the light is always on.
Dear ones, we are the moon. God has called and designed up for the same purpose of shedding light over the darkness- to fight the blackness and shadows that surround us. And just like the real moon, we cannot within ourselves generate Light to do this. We have nothing to give, nothing of a spark; we must rely fully on God (the Sun) to get our light. We can only REFLECT.
Oh! But what a Sun we have to take light from! Steadfast, unchanging, unwavering, unabating. Just as our physical sun shines without fail, thereby ensuring the physical moon will never waver, so also does our Father in heaven provide Light for us to spiritually draw from to combat the darkness of this present world.
And dark it can be! The moon reflects the whole of the sun’s rays all the time, it is always reflecting fully down on us. So why the darker nights? Why the crescent moons? Why the nights without a moon?
Logistically it is because the world is blocking the sun. Our earth has come between the giver of light and the reflector of light…. and as the reflection in the sky grows smaller, the darkness grows deeper.
The sun has not changed in brightness, the moon has not lost its ability to reflect…no, dear ones, our Earth came between them. Do you see the incredible parallels here?
How often does your world come between you and God? How brightly (or not) is your reflection of the Sun? Better yet, with the solar eclipse still fresh in our minds, how often do you (as the moon) actually block the Sun? Is your behavior not only not reflecting Him but actually eclipsing His light? It is a sobering thought, is it not?
John 8:12 (ESV) Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
2 Corinthians 4:5-6 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 5: 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Writing this devotion for you today has been an incredible encouragement to me to look up at the moon more. I am grateful that I will never look up at it in the same way. Perhaps our moon has another job, too. Maybe God put it there as a constant reminder and inspiration to us to fulfill our calling in Him… just as the moon does. To be the moon to His sun. What an awesome thought that the Creator took the time to hang an orb in the sky to quicken our minds to our moon-purpose every.single.night.
Move the ‘world’ out of your way today, beloved. Set your trajectory to maintain course with the Sun. Reflect the Light!
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Holy Beautiful Life
Featured Image by Kanenori from Pixabay
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