Moonlit

I love how a half moon ~ which that glinting glimmering of halo light is above ~ sends and shines forth as a full circle.  Now, had I had my a camera other than my iphone, you might have been able to tell that it was only a half moon.  But I still found it wonderful that the moonlight sends forth a glow in all directions.

When Jesus said, "Let your light shine," he didn't mean just toward the people you liked.  He didn't mean just in the places and spaces you will/want it to go.  Light escapes in all directions.  Once a candle is lit, the only way to stop its benefits from being sent/shining forth is to extinguish it.

Of course, we are great about doing this.  We would rather stumble, fumble, and fall in the dark than let someone we don't like get some of our light we don't think s/he deserves.  We want to cling to control.  We want to determine the direction of our energy.  We want to be the master of our destiny and destination.

But light being light doesn't always cooperate with our scheming, plotting and planning.  Again, Jesus said that the rain falls on the just and unjust.  Moonlight does the same.  It generously soaks and saturates all the earth.  The beautiful moon was not just for me...but for people who hold different thoughts, vote differently, see the world differently with those same moon beams. 

Oh, I know, we are taught a very, linear and rational way of being.  You need to behave so you can get ahead.  We are told to finish our broccoli before dessert.  We are raised in a conditional way of life.  But, that doesn't mean everything operates that way. 

In fact, it seems, that God does not.  Which is why we are so flummoxed and frustrated to explain God intellectually.  You cannot always prove beauty.  You cannot create an equation for grace.  You cannot always quantify/qualify love.  Somethings are bigger than the container of the word that seeks to describe it.  Somethings are bigger than our minds, which is where our hearts and souls and goosebumps down our skin come in joyfully dancing. 

I can't prove the beauty of the moon.  I can't tell you want it felt like to snap a photo of a celestial body 238,900 miles away could cause me to catch my breath.  I can't tell you how a subtle breeze broke through the blanket of humidity just at that moment and slipped away just as fast.  I can't prove any of that to you, because the moment has faded away.  It was thirty seconds on a Thursday.  One moment that will continue to sing and speak to my heart for days to come.

Sometimes, an author once said, there are single moments that take days to unpack in the stillness and solitude of our souls.  The photo above is one such moment ~ a trace of God's grace ~ I share with you as we prepare to enter into August tomorrow. 

Grace and peace ~~