Like a Full Moon

Driving to Bible study on Sunday night,  I witnessed the stunning beauty of the past week's full moon prior to its eclipse, I recalled this devotional I wrote after I witnessed a stunning full moon early one Friday morning during the time I was driving Mother each week day to radiation treatments. (This blog posting has been edited from an online devotional published in 2015.)

This photo, courtesy of the NASA public domain
files, is so reminiscent of the full moon I saw. It
was purported to be one of the full moons that was
closest in proximity to our world in the year of 2007.

            One cool morning in the predawn of the day as I drove to the school where I was teaching, the brilliance of the full moon loomed high in the northwestern sky. The lunar body gleamed strikingly luminous with its craters distinctly visible to the naked eye. 

            As a young child, I recalled my parents pointing out full moons. Dad delighted in telling me the moon was made of cheese. My little mind’s gears ground vigorously to process whether that was true or not. We always viewed those brilliantly bright orbs in a night sky.

            Interestingly, until that school term, I seldom left for school during the darkness of early morning. Yet the fall of 2007 found my mother requiring radiation for a large basal cell skin cancer on her face. With the permission and blessing of my principal, Bobby Simma, I left each afternoon, literally on the heels of my students’ departure, for the Bend to pick up my parents, and travel to Ponca City for Mother’s radiation treatment each weekday for over six weeks. Each morning, I arrived at my classroom well before dawn to prepare for the school day. Maybe the full moon remained indelible in my memory because I had seen so few full moons in the morning.

            As I drove slowly to the school trying to absorb the breath-taking beauty of the full moon, I began to draw comparisons between humans and the moon. People in  their  raw humanity are cold, dark, and scarred. However, when the light of the Son shines on us even our scars have an appearance of splendor for His glory. His light reflects so completely in our darkened, sinful lives transforming us into objects of worth and beauty. In turn, we can radiantly shine into the lives of those we encounter and brighten their paths as well.

           Just as the sun is the only reason for the moon’s illumination, Jesus clearly taught that He was the light, not a light but the only source for bringing light and forgiveness into the darkness of sin that is present in each person. He emphatically declared Himself in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

            After His light invades our beings, He challenges us to let our light shine so that those we meet will see the Holy Spirit’s works of goodness in our lives. Ultimately, the Heavenly Father will get glory for Himself.

            That leads to the question, “Are our actions and words so full of His light that those we encounter clearly see Him?” Or do we respond with negative, critical words and rude or unpleasant behavior that mirrors the darkness of the world around us or even worse alienates our unbelieving coworkers, relatives, or acquaintances from the Lord?

Lord, I seek to have a life, like the full moon, illuminated by the loving light of the Son reflecting the warmth of Your brilliance to those I encounter. Guard me from a deceptive drift to become as the dark side of the moon so cavernously bleak, permeated with gloom.  Whenever I inch toward that destructive chasm, pull me with Your loving-kindness back into the radiance of Your love and grace.