December 8: moon

"Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”*

I'm a lunatic. That is to say, I enjoy watching the moon. There is something amazing about the moon, I could stare at it for hours. A massive rock with a gravitational pull strong enough to give us tides, yet orbits around our planet. Which we can only see because of the suns light that reflects off it; giving us the different moons. Yet, there is only one side of the moon that we always see! So amazing!

I like the moon's reflection of the sun, in a similar way to how much I like reflections on puddles and ponds, lakes and rivers, the moon shows the light it gets from the sun. It doesn't produce it's own light. I like the imagery of this, there is one source of light, and then everything else is seen in that light, and we can understand a bit about the source of the light by looking at the things it touches. I feel that the moon shines in the darkness of night the light of day.
In the same way, Christians are called to be lights in darkness, not shining our own light but reflecting God's light. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."**, and he also said to his disciples and the crowds gathered around him, "Your are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."***

Like a lamp on a hill, we shine so that people may see. Not that they might see us and think we're awesome, but that they might see Jesus's light in us and praise the One True Heavenly Father. Like the moon reflects the sun :)

One night, 2000 years ago, a few shepherds were out watching their flock by night, they might have been looking at the moon, and millions of stars (I love stars too!) when an angel appeared. Luke, who wrote the account of this, said that at that point "the radiance of the LORD's glory surrounded them."**** I mean wow, talk about a bright light shining in darkness, God's glorious light, shining through a beautiful and terrifying angel who must have freaked them out a bit, because he said "don't be afraid"! Anyway, says that he has some to "bring good news of great joy to all people". What greater news could we every get than that God has not only shone from a distance to brighten our world, but actually stepped into the fray, onto the stage, into the story! No longer do we squint into a distant bright face, we can see face-to-face a man, who is that God on earth for our benefit humbly showing himself in a way we can get to know him!

God became a man to bring peace on earth. In Jesus, he ensured that we could be in a right relationship with God and now condemned in our failures to death. That is why I love what we say at church, "peace be with you", we can really tell people that, and ask it for their lives and know it to be true, because God has given us peace. Knowing that in Jesus, the Light of the World, we too can fellowship in that light, and have the honor and responsibility of taking it further.

Peace be with you all!

p.s. the second thing to come out of the advent box at my church today was a star :)

*Luke 2:14
**John 8:12
***Matthew 5:14-16
****Luke 2:8-20