My living room has big, tall windows across the back that I can look out of while I sit in my chair. There are no window coverings, because we wanted to be able to see every inch of landscape visible. It’s a peaceful, bucolic scene when the trees are full of leaves. In the early summer, we watch hundreds of fireflies light up our back yard.
But sometimes, like now when the trees are bare, the lights from businesses on the nearest street shine in my eyes.
Sometimes I imagine myself with a BB gun. Just sayin.
This morning, I started my writing time at 5am. I sat in my usual place, looked out the windows at the shadows of trees in the dark… saw some of the usual streetlights, and then … way up high… a really bright light.
Wow. Who put that light up in the trees just on the other side of the creek?
Oh. That’s the moon.
God did that.
It’s completely round and so bright it could be a spotlight.
A brilliant moon that’s there for me to see whenever I choose to look. Whenever I decide to get up early enough at the right time of year, God’s gift is hanging there in the sky for me to see it. God doesn’t wait to find out if I’m going to look out the window, and then put a moon there for me. “Oh, you’re up, looking out the window! Here … let me go get a moon for you!”
It’s simply always here.
He is simply always here…
Providing light, comfort, joy… providing a way to see things His way.
Around 6am, the moon had fallen into a hidden place behind my door frame. I had to lean over and then twist my neck down to an awkward position to see it. I could tell it was there, but it was obscured by the beam that crosses my deck.
But now, at 6:55… there it is in all its glory shining in at eye level in the next window over. It looks like a hot air balloon landing half a mile away. Huge.
I run to get my camera… the one with all the special settings that I don’t know how to use. I want you to see just how amazing this moon is, staring at me through my window like a bird that’s landed on my windowsill, come to sing me a song.
It’s dark in my house. The indoor fountain is giving off a little light, but other than that, there are just some silhouettes of the everyday clutter. It’s nice that I can’t see all the clutter… that all I can see is the moon and the tiny bit of sky that’s getting lighter and lighter.
Hurry. Take the picture before it gets too light.
I have to make quite a few setting changes on the camera to get the photo to look anything at all like what I see with my naked eye. Even without the flash, the camera keeps lighting up the room, showing my clutter. Try changing this setting. Now this setting. Hurry.
Of course, even in the best photo, the moon looks like the head of a pin … not like the giant, glowing serving platter I’m trying to capture.
But it’s the best I can do.
And the moon…. It’s doing the best it can do, reflecting the light of the sun.
Now it’s 7:10, and the sky is blue. I can see everything outside … the ugly yellow house behind us, the clutter on my deck, the naked winter trees, the rooftops of the business behind the creek… the one the moon is trying to hide behind.
Now it’s 7:17, and the moon is “gone.” Streaks of pink are showing up in the sky, like freshly painted watercolor. They are the gift of the moment. I did nothing to deserve them or the moon… my very own moon that came to visit… because it was always there. Because God is always here.
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