Ancient satellite in the sky
How many generations have you seen passing by
Beneath your reflected sunlight glow?
Adam and Eve and the greatest fall,
Abraham staring at you and the stars in awe,
Moses leading Israel’s children,
And Jesus sweating great drops of blood in the Garden.
The years of history that have gone by
When man’s ages seem unchanging
And suddenly these mortals look behind
And what was modern now is ancient.
Oh Moon do you look down
And silently shake your head
At man’s difficulty to see
That without Jesus’ sacrifice
Man’s life is the walking dead?
Last night the moon was almost at its full and shining down on my desk through our living room window. I rushed outside with my Cannon SX160 IS, which is a small point and shoot. This is amazing, my 35mm Pentax with exchangeable lenses (I have a 55-300 mm lens) can barely get the detail of the moon this camera is able to get at a 64X zoom. We’ve come a long way in all kinds of technology, and it’s especially apparent to me in the history of cameras (which I only know by experience, starting with a film camera).
But to tell the truth, the advancement in technology is nothing to the staying power of God’s creation; and the moon is a perfect example of this. About once or twice a month, depending on the time of year it is, the moon shines through my window either in the morning or at night. Sometimes it’s completely full and sometimes it’s just a sliver. It doesn’t matter, every time I see it, it makes me smile.
I’m sure that when God first created it, there weren’t as many craters in it as there are now, because time, in this imperfect world takes its toll on everything. The fact is, the moon reminds me of God’s faithfulness because when I look at it, I know that everyone in history from Adam and Eve to me sitting here typing my blog with my advanced computer has looked at the same moon.
Adam and Eve slept under this moon. Abraham looked up at the stars and was amazed at the promise God made to him in Genesis 15:5 to have as many descendants as there were stars.
Can’t you imagine that every time after that when night came, Abraham knew God was going to keep that promise?
Then there was Moses, bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt. I can’t imagine not being over awed by what God was doing for him and for his people. Laying beneath the stars and the moon, Moses must have felt the Presence of the Almighty close by.
And of course we cannot forget Jesus, the Savior of all mankind. As he prayed in the night, dropping great drops of blood in his sweat, agonizing over the crucifixion he was getting ready to experience, asking God, his Father, if there was any other way. And yet in the end he said, “Not my will but yours be done.”
How can we surrender anything less?
God’s love to us is apparent in everything around us, from the smallest particles of matter to the massive black holes that might weigh a billion times more than our sun, and yet be small enough to fit inside an atom, according to the Science webpage Curiosity.
Scientists have not discovered what the absolute smallest particle is, nor have they discovered the absolute largest and they never will; especially since the majority of the scientific community refuse to acknowledge the existence of God. He is both the absolute smallest and the infinite biggest in all of nature, he is Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent. He might even be called Omnis, which is Latin for “everything, all”.
But the greatest of these is that God is OmnisAmare: All Loving. Now, my Latin is certainly lacking and I might have the wrong conjugation, but I hope my meaning is clear. God is the perfection of love, and it’s a love so fierce and strong that it is unbearable in its expression to us. In other words, if we were to be given the complete understanding of how much God truly loves us, we would be unmade.
So, God gives us his love though Jesus and the natural world around us. I think so much so God thinks, "they're going to love this" when those who notice the beauty in sunrises and sunsets see them. Even to the individual:
“Coleen is going to love this moon.”
I know in my heart he thinks of each individual in those most intimate terms. And what is so unbelievable as that? If he’s God Almighty and as infinitely small as he is infinitely large and encompasses all, then of course he thinks of each individual as one he loves and cares for.
And for whatever reason he gave me the ability to write and Rich Mullins the ability to write songs about Him and His love for each of us, He will make sure those who need to hear each message will find His message of love. Oh, my writing is failing me and I’m not able to explain it!
The only way to make this clear is to remember Jeremiah 29:13-14
He knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves. Here he promises that if we truly seek him we will find him, he’ll make sure we do.
Next time you look at the moon, remember Jesus who died for each individual of us. That same moon that looks down on you looked down on him and in this way you can remember how much God loves you.