A Meteor or a Moon

As seen in the  "The Heartbeat" and published in the Hot Springs Village Voice

As a young boy, I would look up at the moon and be amazed at the face I saw. My Papa told me it was the “man in the moon” looking down on all of us. As I got older I began to understand the phases of the moon as it slowly disappeared and then reappeared to once again show the “man’s” full face.

One Christmas I asked for and received a telescope. I was able to see the moon magnified in the eyepiece of the telescope. It was both a marvelous sight as well as a curious one. What seemed like a smooth surface with the naked eye was now revealed as a crater-laden moonscape. I began to read about how the surface came to look the way it does.

Meteors range in size and weight. But on average, about 100,000 marble-sized meteors hit the moon every day! Over history, there have been some pretty large meteors hit the moon as is evidenced by the very large craters. But in the last few years, astronomers have actually viewed a meteorite impacting the moon which was large enough to make a crater 40 meters wide, or just short of one-half a football field! It is amazing, even with as many daily impacts the moon receives that it can clearly reflect the sun’s light with its rough surface.

As humans, we are no different from the moon. We are smooth at birth, but then life happens and we are impacted by life’s meteors and our countenance reflects those hard knocks. But I propose the beauty of the moon and the face we see when it is full is only possible because of the impacts. Impacts on us are positive and some not so positive. Both are lasting, but it’s the people who have had a positive impact on my life that have stuck with me so long.

We grow and are impacted by several people and events. But I have to ask, when is the last time you were a positive meteor and not a moon? There are a few people God placed in my life as “meteors” that had a huge impact on me. I will never forget them, and you will never forget those people in your lives. God through those people molds us into the “moons” we are today.

We cannot choose whether we want to be a meteor or a moon, as the title of this article suggests – we have to be both. We will continue to show the impacts of life as we grow older and those impacts accumulate. But like the moon and the miraculous way it reflects the sun’s light even though it receives many meteor impacts a day, we need to reflect the light of God’s Son so His light shines into the dark places of this world.

God impacts others through us. So dare to be a positive meteor in someone’s life. But never forget as you do, be a moon and reflect the light of the Son to them.