When you look at the moon, what do you see? A brilliant orb in the night sky? An unimpressive satellite floating in outer space? When I look at the moon, I see both a brilliant orb and an unimpressive satellite. The moon only has 1/6 of the gravity that earth does which means that the surface of the moon is not protected from the meteorites and asteroids that frequently slam into it’s surface. The average speed at which these objects strike is 12 miles per second. The only reason that the moon is bright in the sky is because it is reflecting the sun’s light to us on earth. The craters that may ordinarily appear to be imperfections on the moon’s surface have a certain beauty to them when they appear in the light of the sun.

When I think about the moon, I see a beautiful picture of God’s love for us. Because of the different blows of life, sometimes I feel like I have a lot of internal craters. Asteroids and meteorites of rejection and disappointment have crashed into my soul leaving me feeling somewhat hurt and broken at times. When I look at my life at different moments, I don’t see something that is really all that impressive. Then I begin to think about what Jesus has done in my life. The light of God’s love has penetrated the darkness of my life and has shone upon the different craters in my soul. I am now able to talk about my shortcomings in the light of God’s love and a certain beauty begins to emerge. A story comes to the surface that speaks of God’s love and power being able to use an ordinary man to do extraordinary things.

There is a lesson we can all learn from the moon. Some of us try to hide our craters because we are ashamed of them. We try to act like they are not there when they are really obvious to those around us. Some of us would prefer to not  have God’s light shine on us for fear of being exposed. The moon is really quite humble in appearance and is not so great to look at apart from the light of the sun. As the sun’s light hits the surface of the moon and reflects to us on earth, even the craters appear beautiful. What if you allowed God’s light to shine on you? What if you allowed yourself to feel loved even though you’ve made tons of mistakes? What if you allowed yourself to be accepted by God even though you feel like you should be rejected? Perhaps, like the moon, there would appear a certain beauty in your life that would act as a living witness to those around you of God’s love and power…what if?