118-What Are You Reflecting?
“See ya in the morning” bounced back and forth between couples as Jen and I slid open the screen door to get the full impact of the cool night air. Lake Huron breezes lightly graced my face when I closed the door behind us and pointed myself toward the tent pitched on the uniform grass that led all the way back from our friend’s cottage to the sandy shore of the great lake. Just about where Jen and my feet left the miniature sidewalk I stopped and looked up. It has been quite some time it seemed that I’ve had a clear night far from the city lights. The sky was dark and light at the same time. No light haze coming over the trees to illuminate the littered darkness, no—just the purity of the stars, each one light years from another, yet all working together to create a single picture we call the night sky. “Look at the Milky Way” I said to Jen, giving a gentle nudge to stop and stare with me. We took a minute to acknowledge how small we are as we were blessed to see a star, well a meteor really, flick across the expanse leaving a faint trail behind it for a split second. Awesome.
When I was guiding in British Columbia back in the early 2000’s I never slept in a tent unless rain or snow was inevitable, just so I could catch a glimpse of this very same sky. I woke myself up around 2 to 3am when it was the darkest so I could take in the most amazing view I’d ever see—more light than dark space, or so it’d seem. Zero light pollution, only the moon that when full, acted like a spotlight on the snow-covered peaks. Quite annoying really, that moon, like trying to fall asleep with a flashlight in your face. In tree line every branch was distinctly etched in black ink on the mossy floor as the reflection of the sun lit up the forest like it was searching for a lost trinket under the couch with the brightest light it could find buried in the kitchen junk drawer.
We are the moons, we reflect the son… I think I first heard this analogy years ago while guiding in British Columbia and I had to take a second to think about the physics of it all. The moon that orbits our earth literally is a giant mirror that is perfectly placed to be, as Genesis 1:16 calls it, “the lesser light to rule the night.” What a wonderful design, right? I’ve hiked in the woods and on mountains with nothing more than that reflection, and it was sufficient, although nothing compared to the sun itself. So, we are the moons, huh? One of my favorite little nuggets in scripture comes from a letter by Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians. I’m not sure who penned the words; maybe the 3 of them talked out the phrasing and someone else entirely wrote it down…who really cares, the nugget is this: “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the name of the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God…” Abound more and more. Think about the physics of that!
What will it take for us to abound more and more? Have we ever considered that we are like the moon itself in the sense that we reflect the love of Jesus, to everyone we know? Or are we reflecting another message? The analogy is begging for us to consider what we are reflecting and compelling us like Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy in the name of our Lord Jesus to abound more and more… to take deliberate action! I was refreshed the other night up in Caseville by the vast sky and sheer contrast of the big dipper to the stars around it. I was also reminded of how small I am, but also that I have a job to do—as insignificant as I may seem, I am like the moon, created to reflect the son. Join me.
-Matt
