Originally posted as “‘goodnight moon’ explained…sort of” on September 19, 2005.

A quick tap on the door. “Hey, let’s go look at the moon!” One thing about living with people from all over the place, there is always reason for some sort of festivity…and right now with the beautiful harvest moon, it’s time for the Chinese Moon Festival, complete with moon cakes and the like. And not too untimely for a nice cup of chai and a blog entry that I’ve been meaning to get to since the inception of “basilea”…

What exactly is this “goodnight moon” all about? Well, let me start off by saying that it represents many things for me…both my fears and my hope. As a child, I was plagued with many fears, both real and imagined, but I was especially terrified of the night (as Shivaree evocatively sings about in her song, Goodnight Moon). Even at a young age, I remember always looking up at the moon as I stared out the car window…a never ending fascination with how it followed me wherever I went, giving me a tangible connection to the God I often cried out to.

With most of my fears, I forced myself to overcome them in the most extreme sense, and came to love the sense of freedom found in the conquest of each fear…yet as I got older, these fears grew in different directions, some finally causing me to see that control was not the end game, but rather, trust. Trust that if I fall, I can still know that it was all a part of the Lord’s plan, that it will somehow mold me more into his image, and glorify him in some way, a small stone added to the building of his kingdom.

It is my God who gives me hope in the midst of the night, and strangely now I love the night and can smile when I see the moon shining down on me through my window…and when I say “goodnight moon” it’s an expression of trust that the Lord will be with me while I sleep, thankful that he has brought me through another day and that his grace will be abundantly available for the following daybreak. Not to mention the ways in which he has used the moon to speak peace into to my life, such as the stories I previously told from Albania and India.

At the same time, I can’t wait until I can say “goodnight moon” forever, when:

…the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away…The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. (Rev 21:3-4, 22-26)

While we are still on this side of eternity, however, stepping outside of what we find comfortable can be excruciatingly painful…but if we always live in fear, how can we be called people of faith? Sometimes I want to escape, or scream, or go running, or call a friend to try and alleviate the pain and gain wisdom, but then I am reminded: this is what it means to be a woman of faith. Take it one step at a time and God will meet you there.

To quote John Piper from his book Don’t Waste Your Life, speaking about risk in the life of a believer:

The bottom-line comfort and assurance in all our risk-taking for Christ is that nothing will ever separate us from the love of Christ. Paul asks, “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). His answer is NO! In other words, no misery that a true Christian ever experiences is evidence that he has been cut off from the love of Christ. The love of Christ triumphs over all misery. Romans 8:38-39 makes this crystal-clear: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

On the far side of every risk – even if it results in death – the love of God triumphs. This is the faith that frees us to risk for the cause of God. It is not heroism, or lust for adventure, or courageous self-reliance, or efforts to earn God’s favor. It is childlike faith in the triumph of God’s love – that on the other side of all our risks, for the sake of righteousness, God will still be holding us. We will be eternally satisfied in him. Nothing will have been wasted.

Amen, and goodnight moon!