Reflecting God’s Glory

At night, when there is a clear sky, the Moon can look magnificent. This is especially so when there is a full Moon and its light shines upon the Earth, bringing light into the darkness. When there is a new Moon around the closest point to earth, it is known as a ‘Super New Moon’, because it appears much bigger in the sky. Some religions even worship the Moon as a god because of its beauty.

However, the Moon has no natural light of its own. It only has reflected light from the sun. The light it receives makes us focus on the beauty of the object itself rather than the flaws (such as its craters) that can be observed. The far side of the Moon has a certain mystique about it. It’s always out of view, never facing the Earth—which has earned it a misleading nickname, ‘the dark side,’ as if sunlight never reaches its surface, although it does. It’s the section of the Moon we’ll never see for ourselves, unless we hop on a spaceship and fly over there.

The reason I am drawing attention to this is that we are much like the Moon and God is like the Sun. We have no beauty or glory in and of ourselves, but we can (unlike the Moon) choose to turn ourselves to face the glory of God’s light in our lives.

Alternatively, we can be like the dark side of the Moon and not have ourselves exposed and facing God’s glory and light, and we can live so much of our lives in sin and darkness. Our verse today tells us that we can reflect His glory to others to be carriers of His glory. In doing so, we don’t have to worry about our appearance, our failings, our sinfulness. All that is obliterated by His glory.

While the Moon can never change its appearance, the action of its orbit affects it, drawing closer to the sun at times (waxing) and pulling away (waning). We can choose to permanently draw closer to God, or pull away.  If we draw closer to Him, our verse tells us that we experience being transformed from glory to glory. Drawing closer to God changes us. In the process we are meant to reflect His glory to the people we meet, so that they don’t see us, but Him, and are drawn to desire having what we have; the light and love that reflects Him.