31 Days Of Strength In Scripture: The Constant

Celestial Scapes
(A Poem)

A seemingly perfect orb

In a seemingly imperfect world.
A face in the brilliant sphere
Twisted in eternal sorrow
Stares back at me
Just as I've stared at her from my window
Nightly, for years.
A colorless haze
In a lonely,
Shapeless world.
She remains forever awake.
I wonder how I can be so happy
As I gaze up into her eyes
So black and empty like the space around her
And I wonder how she can be so mournful
And still beam with so much
Intensity.

-----

As a child I would often lie in bed at night and gaze up at the moon from my bedroom window. I remember intently studying the face I saw in that moon, my own face full of awe and wonder. I believed that maybe she was a protector, a sorrowful watcher of earth's people, or perhaps that she was fashioned after God's own face, His anguish over His creations' afflictions evident to all. I imagined that if I just stared at it hard enough, the expression would turn joyful. Even then I wanted to make perfect what I couldn't understand.

I've realized that I rarely look up at that moon anymore. I think that maybe, deep down, I don't want to see any more reminders of the pain this broken world holds reflected in its countenance. Or maybe I'm just tired of not being able to change it to reflect what I feel – because what I feel on most days is its beauty, not its sorrow.

I might have also thought I would find some answers if I just searched that face long enough, but there was usually disappointment in that search. It's not the answers that I need anyway, but the peace. No matter what, that moon remains constant. I can count on its presence to carry me through the night. And I'm thankful for a Creator who knows how to give us what we need through His creation.

Isaiah 55:8-9 - “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”