The sun was not shining upon our side of the world. It was dark and clear and cold, just the right evening for a visit to the Observatory. Inside the big round dome we found a huge telescope and, one by one, each of the visitors peered through it up into the night sky.
When my turn came, I climbed a little ladder and saw, for the first time, a “close-up” of the far-away moon. There were mountains and valleys and ups and downs that I had never suspected before.
“We call it moonlight,” explained the man, “but it is really sunlight.”
The moon after all only reflects the light of the sun you know. The sun is so very powerful and dazzling that it is easy to understand why the Lord Jesus is called the “Sun of Righteousness.” But during the night the sun is out of sight, even as the Lord Jesus is absent now. The moon lights up the nighttime, even as we, who are Christians, should light up the darkness of this world while the Lord Jesus is away.
Now the moon is, in itself, rocky and barren and lifeless, just as you and I are in ourselves. But how beautifully it shines with light from the sun! And so we who are saved can shine to God’s glory in this dark world now when we reflect the loveliness of our absent Lord.
The moon, after all, is a pretty poor light and not very dependable. Sometimes it looks big, sometimes small, and sometimes we cannot see it at all. It is an apt picture of us, who belong to the Lord Jesus, who often show ourselves so poor and unfaithful before the world. Yet as long as we turn our hearts toward the One who is in heaven at God’s right hand, just so long does He see and value our shining, whether the world does or not.
When, however, the earth hides the light of the sun, the poor moon does not shine at all. It is eclipsed, because it faces the earth, not the sun.
Children, is your face turned toward the earth, or “the Sun”—God’s “Sun?” Are your thoughts and your hopes fixed upon earth or upon Jesus? Have you accepted Him as your own personal Saviour? Soon He will come, and all earthly plans will perish, hut those who belong to Him will shine in His beauty forever and ever.
ML 12/03/1950