The Lesser Light to Rule the Night

I often take my dog for a quick stroll before the sun comes up, even before coffee. 

This morning, the moon was slipping through the fog, close to the horizon before I even noticed it. 

This one was a WOW. 

What is often a five-minute sniff & pee for my furry friend turned into an additional ten minutes of me playing with the camera on my phone plus the view through the trees.

I almost aways take my phone because the sky does amazing things before the sun comes up. 

All this got me contemplating creation and how the moon rules over the night, and more. 

“And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.” Genesis 1:16

Many religions use a lunar calendar to mark their feasts, fasts and celebrations. Interestingly, because we now know the moon revolves around the earth, several who follow it for their calendars celebrate their feasts two days in a row. Different groups within those religions see the moon on different days. And in many cases around the world, it allows another day off work. I know this from lived experience in Africa.

The Lord placed it so it could rule the night and so much more. Ocean tides, storm surges, air pressure, precipitation all are affected by the gravitational pull of the moon.

The orb I saw this morning is the harvest moon, which is the full moon closest to the fall equinox. This is when the earth’s rotation appears to make the sun cross the equator. This signals the beginning of fall for us in the northern hemisphere. 

Fall initiates six months of shorter days with less available daylight than moonlight for us northerners. The moon will rule the night.

This particular harvest moon is also a supermoon which means it appears to be bigger than normal because it passes closer to the earth than most months. 

I have never seen a harvest supermoon through fog before. I love the effect of the fog accentuating the depth of field through the layers of trees.

The refraction of the water hanging in the air produces a rainbow of fall colors wrapping around the pale orange moon.

This morning, I see the moon as a guardian placed in the sky for all to see. No matter where we are across the world, we all see the same moon, performing its duties consistently since creation.

May we all see the beauty, faithfulness, and imagination of our Maker in all aspects of His creation. He gave us the moon for more reasons than we know, but we can remember He placed the moon to rule the night. It belongs to Him, and so are we.