AfterWords | Making Moonlight (July 2, 2023)

A 3-Minute Read
by Kristin Hill

One of the great wonders of God’s creation is that each and every night, when the sun goes down, we can gaze up at the darkness of the night sky and see the moon shining its brightness among the stars.

There’s just something so beautiful about moonlight.

What we forget to remember though, is that the moon, in fact, isn’t making its own light at all. Moonlight is actually just sunlight that shines on the moon and is then reflected back. The moon shines because it reflects the light of the sun. The moon isn’t actually making light at all… it is the moon’s time in the presence of the sun that makes it shine in the dark.

Thinking about this can do in our hearts and minds, what Jesus described when He explained why He often spoke in parables. Because in seeing, we often do not see and in hearing, we often do not hear or understand. Jesus says in Matthew 13:13 (The Message), “That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness…”

So maybe thinking about moonlight today, opens our hearts to a deeper work stirring truth and beauty deep within us. Maybe remembering moonlight creates readiness for what our souls need to hear most today.

On Sunday, Sarah so beautifully shared an amazing story from Acts 3 and 4, about Peter and John walking in boldness and bravery, healing a man who had been lame his entire life. As the man walked for the first time, he began to leap and praise God, and everyone around began to take notice. When Peter saw that everyone was looking in amazement, he said, “Why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power we made him walk…?” He then pointed them back to Jesus as the source of healing and power. He did so again when he and John were arrested and then questioned about the events that had taken place. The passage in Acts 4 goes on to describe Peter as being filled with the Holy Spirit as he spoke from the overflow of his heart about Jesus. He said, “… Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing before you… There is salvation in no one else.”

This is a story of boldness, of courage, of bravery in prayer. This story of miraculous healing and courageous faith is amazing, and at the same time, something many of us couldn’t even imagine in our own lives.

But there’s also great beauty and wonder in the quiet brilliance offered to us in Acts 4:13 that might just meet us right where we find ourselves today. It says—

“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,

for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures.

They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”

May it be true of us today, Lord.

We, who are ordinary, with no special training, making our way in this world, living everyday lives as we follow You. May we step into the freedom and wonder of our calling, as carriers of Your presence. May our time spent with You, Jesus, bring Your healing and hope and light to a dark and weary world.

If we hear this story and have a hard time finding ourselves in it, and we can’t imagine what it would look like to carry such power and boldness and healing— what if today, we first just remember the moon?

The moon simply reflects what it sees.

It is the brightness of the sun that is the source of light… the moon simply brings witness as an image-bearer of the light it has beheld.

People looked at Peter and John as if they were the sun, producing this healing power on their own.

But they were just making moonlight. 

They simply carried with them the presence of Jesus, reflecting Him and His power and His healing to the broken and weary around them.

Jesus, remind us today—We need not try to be the sun.
There is no need to bear the weight of striving on our own to stir up good works. We do not need to try and manufacture signs and wonders to show the spirit’s power in us.
You are mighty in us because Your presence is with us.
We can trust You to move in power among us, drawing all to Yourself with Your great love.
The invitation is ours to rest and walk as Your Beloved, forgiven and set free to love the world around us by Your winsome grace.
We need only to keep telling the story of Your faithfulness in our lives.
You, Jesus, are the brightness of the sun.
We need only today to be the moonlight… reflecting the bright light of Your love that brings freedom, healing, full restoration, and true rest.
May it be said of us today, that we are people who have been with Jesus.
And may that be the light we shine in a dark and weary world.
Jesus, may we carry Your light and Your love and Your presence with us today as we go…