No Moon Tonight
14/02/2015 13:31
It had been a warm summer’s day. Donning a pair of shorts and a T shirt and my comfortable pair of sneakers, I left home to enjoy my evening walk. Dusk deepened into night. Two little stars twinkled and waved, inviting me to walk under the vast canopy that was the night sky. Soft winds rustled in the trees; branches danced, keeping time to its music. Praise songs rang in my ears and my spirit communed with my Creator.
Twilight became night. More stars came out to play. I flicked on my little torch. Where was the moon, I wondered. Another walker passed by. She looked up and said “No moon tonight. It’s dark.” I smiled and nodded. She was right. Still no sign of the moon. Only stars. Lots of them. I gazed up at the velvet sky.
Like silver dust strewn on a black cape, stars glittered and winked and smiled above me. Breathtaking! Beautiful. I was mesmerised. I've always enjoyed the night sky. As I completed my five laps around the Oval, feelings of deep contentment seeped into me – like a Lover’s joyful embrace. God’s night-sky echoed what the songs in my ears proclaimed. How glorious our God. And how enchanting His creation. I returned home energised in body and refreshed in spirit.
Later, as I hung wet clothes out in the garden I called out to my husband.
‘The sky’s really beautiful tonight, Shan. You should see it.’
My beloved came out to where I stood. He looked up at the vast array of stars.
“Yes” he said.
“Is that Betelgeuse”
‘No – that’s Sirius.’
‘Then what’s that star? I thought that was Sirius’
‘Oh! That must be a planet’ he said. ‘It could be Mercury’
“Mercury? Isn’t it too big to be Mercury. Could it be Jupiter?”
I sat down on our garden steps while my husband disappeared indoors to get his binoculars. I loved it – gazing at this wealth of beauty in our world. Even on a dark night. No, there was no moon that night. But the darkness helped us see the stars.
Is there no moon in your night tonight? Is there no light to guide you? There are times when our pathways go through the darkest of valleys and there is no light to guide us. Be assured that God often allows those seasons so we can enjoy the beauty of the night, so we can distinguish the world in fresh ways. Or behold grandeur we otherwise would have missed. No moon in the skies tonight.
Ah! But there are millions of stars shining. Glowing. Shimmering.
We saw the Milky Way very clearly that night. Orion. Taurus. The Seven Sisters. A host of other constellations we couldn’t name. We often don’t take time to revel in God’s beauty when life’s going well. So when a dark season creeps upon us, we can be thankful. No need to look for the moon. We can instead find joy in the beauty of the stars.
Thank you Father God for many times you've allowed the moon to stay hidden; when instead the brilliance of the night sky captured my heart. I've revelled in your love during dark cold nights when the only illumination was the light of your Countenance. And what a bright Light You are!
The One True Light in all the universe!
No moon tonight? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter a whit.
“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
“Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown,”
and he replied,
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
M. Louise Haskins
Dedication
This blog is dedicated to my beloved Mum. Mama was disappointed she couldn’t attend the watchnight service on the 31st Dec 2014. But you know... it didn’t matter. She woke up in eternity in 2015. The last email sent from her computer on 31st Dec 2014 at 7.35 p.m. was sent after my reading my blog. It comforts me that her last communication was to me. It comforts me that what she’d read last was my blog.
In Mum’s journal I found these beautiful words above by M. Louise Haskins copied in her own familiar handwriting. Those words came true for her. She didn’t need a light as she walked into 2015. With her hand in God's strong sure comforting Hand, she walked safely into the unknown. Her new beginning would have been far more glorious than she could have ever imagined.
You did go out into the darkness this New Year Mama darling. But it was alright.
It was your birthday of LIFE in Eternity. What an magnificent way to begin a New Year!
Thanking God today for His faithfulness and rejoicing with you in your New Beginning.
