The Light Side of the Moon

I have decided that the best time to look at the sun is at night. 

Yup. I know what you're thinking. It's finally happened. Esther has finally gone off her rocker. She's cracked! It's only been four weeks since she dropped out of college, but she's already forgotten her astronomy facts. After all, any self-respecting, home school grad/college dropout should know that the sun doesn't shine at night.

To be fair (to myself), I never actually finished my astronomy class in elementary school (I think I made it halfway through), and I never cared enough about science to take another astronomy class in high school or college. In other words, I am no expert on the stars, planets, moon, or anything else space related. 

But! I do know a thing or two about the extraterrestrial (angels and inspiration and such), and a couple weeks ago I noticed something that scientists, songwriters, and storytellers missed. Or if they did realize it, they didn't put it in the first half of my science book or emphasize it in any songs or stories that I ever heard. 

So welcome to Esther's Extraterrestrial Educational Experience. A class designed just for you to tell you all about what science has yet to discover ;)

It was a dark and noisy Saturday night... and I was outside, sitting in the dirt and leaning against a log. I was praying with emotion (which is a nice way of saying I was complaining to God). I don't usually do my praying in the dirt, but that night my brain was so full of confusing thoughts, mixed up ideas, and erratic emotion, that I thought I might have better success sorting it all out in the darkness outside. I was wrong. Somehow I'd chosen the noisiest night of the summer to have a moment of quiet reflection. Somewhere to my left I could hear loud music and the sound of a large crowd. Behind me, fireworks popped and cracked as neighbors celebrated the summer holidays. 

It seemed like all around me and inside me lay a cacophony of confusion. I did my best, but I could not seem to concentrate. I nearly screamed with frustration and in one final effort, decided to focus all my attention on the waxing gibbous moon (okay, I might know a little more about the moon than I let on). While I stared at the moon, I found myself laughing at the irony of my situation. I'd come outside because I was surrounded by internal darkness and doubt, and I felt my faith failing. I was hoping the silence would help me find my faith again, but instead I found myself staring at the moon--a symbol I have long associated with darkness and night. 

The words of a song I learned in primary Sunday school ran through my mind--"Faith is knowing the sun will rise, lighting each new day." This time I nearly laughed. Instead of finding faith, I'd found a reminder that I needed faith. That song said it! I needed faith to know that the sun would rise. But I wasn't sure if the sun would rise inside me. I didn't know if I could make it through my night. 

I started wondering, where was God in all of this? Where is God at night? Why in the darkest time of day (or life) is it so hard to see the sun (Son)? According to science, it is impossible to see the sun at night, what with it being on the other side of the earth and all. And that just didn't seem fair to me. In that moment, I didn't need faith to know that the sun would rise, I needed faith to know that I was going to make it through the night. That I was even going to be here to see the sunrise! I don't need faith when Jesus Christ is standing right in front of me! I need Him when it's dark and when nothing seems to be working out! So where was He?

In Doctrine and Covenants 11:11: I am the light which shineth in darkness. 

I was staring right at Him. 

I don't know if you've ever looked at the moon before. You probably have, and you probably think you know what it looks like. According to science, the moon is a big ball of rocky stuff that sits in the sky not too close and not too far away from the earth where it spends its days circling around the earth. And this rocky sphere doesn't emit any light because it's not made of gas like a star is. Instead, as the moon circles the earth, the sun's light hits the moon at varying angles and gets reflected and bounced to the earth. And that is why we can see the moon. And thanks to the work of a creative genius, when the sun circles out of sight on Earth the moon typically circles into view. 

Which means that whenever you're looking at the light side of the moon, you're really looking at the light of the sun. I mean, you're looking directly at the light of the sun, which is something you can't even do when the sun is shining during the day! It's honestly easier to see the sun in the dark! The sun at night is clear, direct, and white (unless there's cloud pollution), and it's beautiful! When I realized what the light side of the moon really was, I could not look away. The word riveted does not even begin to describe the awe I felt while I looked at the moon. I kept staring at the white gibbous shape in the sky, marveling at the fact that the sun isn't gone just because it's dark, and Christ doesn't disappear when things get bleak. He is literally always here. I just didn't know what He looked like. 

P.S. I couldn't find an image of the moon that I liked enough to include in this post. But if you want to experience something really amazing, the next time you're outside at night, take a moment to look at the light side of the moon. It just might change your life :)