Moonlight, Shine!

For all the ones I know and love – moons, revealing God’s glory in the night.

And for my new nephew, just born – may you become all that He dreamed in His heart for you, that you will reveal to all of us something of Him we never knew before.

I’ve been sleepless lately. The gibbous moon has been so bright on all that new, white snow out there. It shines through the gap between my drawn curtains and calls me out of bed. I just know I’ll miss something glorious if I don’t get up and go look out the window. If I do go, I’ll see those long, lovely shadows leaning out from the spruce and aspen to pattern the yard, or there might be a snowshoe hare in a brave dash across the open spaces between the trees, or I could glimpse an owl swooping low in his midnight hunt. You just never know what you might see when you stand at the window alone in the still night hours and the moon is near-full.

I was looking at that silver moon the other night and thinking about the source of moonlight – the sun. My thoughts turned to The Son and how the Christ is the source of any light that shines out of me, or you, or that stranger in the store who somehow knew just the thing to say to soften a hard day. The Book of The Beginning (Genesis) tells us we were made in God’s image, revealing Him in the earth. And the whole rest of the Bible goes on to tell us that we are so loved and so much wonder has been placed in human skin that if we embrace Him, we will be moons reflecting the light of The Son into any dark place we dare to walk. That Son Himself said, 

^“…You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” (excerpted from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5, The Message)

People are amazing…because God is amazing.

There was a man who walked through one of the darker places in this earth. He gathered truth there, saved it like the precious treasure it is, and then he shone for all he was worth – with his pen. His name was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and during his eight years in the Russian gulag as a political prisoner, he interviewed 227 fellow prisoners and crafted their stories into verse so he could commit them to memory – some 200,000 lines. Years later in “internal exile” in Kazakhstan, he dredged up that raw poetry and wrote it down on small slips of paper. He rolled the papers up tightly and slipped them into a champagne bottle that he kept buried in his garden.

Night after night, he dug up that bottle, dug up the memories and put pen to paper so the world would know those hidden and forgotten men, know their stories. The world had something to learn and those men’s lives had it to teach. It was Solzhenitsyn’s to tell. “You’re here to be light…”

The finished work, The Gulag Archipelago, had to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union for publication. After its release, it became impossible for the rest of the world to pretend ignorance or remain in the dark about what was going on in the Soviet gulag. Solzhenitsyn had embraced God in those work camps, reflected truth in a dark place, and changed the world.

I’m no Solzhenitsyn. I don’t have 227 men’s stories in my ears and heart to tell the world “what really happened”. But I do have a few stories of my own, and a few stories of the people I’ve known. I have a few years of discovering truth and embracing God. Yes, I have a few stories to tell and some light to shine, too. I didn’t think I had the time  – maybe when my kids are older, maybe when life is different, maybe… And then I heard the story of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and The Gulag Archipelago. He was a prisoner. He wasn’t allowed even a pencil or paper to call his own. He had to memorize what he wanted to say and save it for years, finally writing in secret and in hiding and in fear for his life, for crying out loud. So, was I really going to whine that I was busy with laundry and diapers?

I can’t help but think of Paul and Silas, beaten and in leg irons, singing about God at midnight in the prison (Acts 16). They were bright, full moons, indeed! Harvest moons! Beaten up, locked up, and still, their God-light-reflecting-songs caused the earth to quake and a jailer to come to Jesus with his whole family in tow. “God is not a secret to be kept…”

Every one of us has something to offer, some color in the Son’s spectrum to reflect. What do you have? If it’s got life in it, it’s needed. If it’s true, we’re all desperate for it. Is there any grace in your life? The whole world is searching for it, so please share. Yes, maybe someone out there is already doing it. But they’re not doing it the way you do it. No one can do whatever it is you do the way you do it.

If you write, write the words that tell us the truth.

If you sing – or if you can make an instrument sing – sing the song God put in you.

If you paint, draw, take photographs, design greeting cards, or chalk up the sidewalks with beauty, please don’t stop. Show us the beauty and it will point us to The Beautiful One.

If you bake, fill the world with breads and cakes and bless us all to taste and see that the Lord is good.

If you run, run like the wind and we’ll all marvel at the God who designed your fast feet.

If you preach, if you teach, if you recite, if you declare, then open your mouth and let the truth come out and we’ll all take it in because there’s no glut of truth in the air waves these days.

If you garden, then sow and cultivate and know that what you do is exactly what God had in mind for Adam and Eve.

If you dance, show off the grace He gave your limbs and we will slow down and take a deep breath and just be for a moment.

If you are one of those precious treasures who can sit, then sit. Sit and grieve with the grieving so they don’t cry alone. Sit and laugh with the rejoicing because it’s better to celebrate together.

If you love numbers, show us the wonder hidden there. You’re in good company – God loves them, too. He loves pi and fractals and the Fibonacci Sequence and I’m just sure He hid some of the best clues about Himself there.

If you know about the stars, oh please, please, please tell us how long ago they sent that light this way, and what does it sound like when the morning stars sing together? We want to glimpse our Creator.

No one got it all. You have something to reflect – some color, some facet, some favorite part of God. The rest of us want in on it, too.

Who knows what darkness you can tear down if you give what you’ve got? Who knows what night you can dispel if you’ll just shine?

Yes, people are amazing…because God is amazing.

Listen, Heavens, I have something to tell you. Attention, Earth, I've got a mouth full of words. My teaching, let it fall like a gentle rain, my words arrive like morning dew,

Like a sprinkling rain on new grass, like spring showers on the garden.
For it's God's Name I'm preaching— respond to the greatness of our God!
The Rock: His works are perfect, and the way he works is fair and just;
A God you can depend upon, no exceptions, a straight-arrow God.

(-Moses, Deuteronomy 32:1-5, The Message)


Ambushed by the God who made the sun and moon and all the stars,
Kimberly