full moon & God's faithfulness

oddly enough, i've always sort of thought of the full moon as "my rainbow" meaning it symbolized God's faithfulness and promises to me.

i think this started in 2002 when i spent the summer in Amman. the very last night of our trip, we were leaving one of my student's houses and heading down a hill in the cervise with the full moon high in the sky in front of us. with goodbye tears streaming down my face and a mass of emotions about the summer experience that was coming to end, that full moon meant the world to me. two months earlier (i.e. two moon cycles) i had visited this student's house for the first time and also seen a full moon. in those two moon cycles, my life had radically changed.

in 2003, during the hardest summer of my life... i visited my friends rick & angie from amman while they were in chicago. late one sunday night after a great night of them encouraging me i drove home to fort wayne with the full moon in full view in front of me. exactly 1 year later, the same month and same moon. i cried and prayed outloud for at least two hours with the moon leading my way.

it's hard to articulate how incredibly special those moments were to me but over the last 5 years there have been a dozen more times when i saw the full moon at just the right moment to remind me of all that God is doing in and around me- through sunshine and dark trials, He is incredibly faithful.

wednesday night i left the gym at church feeling so incredibly overwhelmed by a giant garage sale and there it was- the full moon up in the sky over the main campus of blackhawk.

funny that "my rainbow" would show in the sky the same week as the truly most beautiful rainbow i've ever seen. (see previous blog)

i walked into the gym this week realizing this garage sale is so much bigger than me. it's ok that i can't tell someone where the shower curtains go and how much all men's suits should cost because someone else can. the Body isn't a body if the hand tries to be as big as the rest of the pieces or tries to walk on it's own. i need those other parts of the Body so very much, after all I'm only created to be one piece. the weight of the world isn't on my shoulders. it's on His and in Him all things hold together. i need to keep the promises of God in front of me just like the moon was on those drives home from chicago and the gym, remembering that i am only His humble servant.

remember that HE IS FAITHFUL.