Tuesdays with Sarah… God Mooned Me!

These past few weeks, I’ve started packing.  If you didn’t know, Scott has been appointed to Mt. Olive UMC and our first Sunday there will be June 15^th.  Hence, the packing has commenced!  We have become very good at moving, having moved 6 times in our 14 year marriage.  I remember 2 years ago when we moved to Huntsville, AL from Union City, TN, Scott told me that if we were going to be part of the Methodist church and it’s itinerant clergy system, we needed to become mobile – like a M.A.S.H. unit!  To become more M.A.S.H. like, we have actually created a pretty good process of how we tackle moving.  First, M.A.S.H. stands for Mobility Acclimated Smyth Household 🙂  Scott packs up his hunting gear, because normal moves for Methodist clergy are not during duck season, so he can pack it up since it won’t be in use at that time.  (Yes, duck hunting goes into every decision we make around here) 🙂  I’ll pack up decorative items, keepsakes, and books.  I also pack up all my scrapbooking/crafty items.  We sell things that we know we can’t take with us, hold a yard sale, and then donate the rest to the thrift store – all part of the M.A.S.H. process!

While I was packing last week, I came across one of my most treasured possessions.  It is my collection of prayer journals.  Although they are many and they are heavy, I will never part with them.  Those precious books contain my prayer life and spiritual journey from the past 21 years.  A youth leader of mine, Christy Little, (now Christy Johnston), gave me my first one when I turned 16.  I had no idea what to do with it.  It was covered in a pink floral cloth… and I loved it.  She told me to use it as a way to communicate to God – prayer requests, sermon notes, praises.  And I did, and I have, and I always will.

My first prayer journal

What I truly love is how to go back and re-read what I talked to God about.  What my current concerns were at that time, and then see how God answered them.  I also love to see how I matured over time, and how the nature of the things I prayed about changed so much over time.  Here are a few of my first journal entry topics:

1. Boyfriends (retaining or obtaining!)
2. For God to help me play well at my basketball games
3. For God to help me make good grades
4. For God to help me be a better friend – to believers and unbelievers

Then as time marched on, the topics changed:

1. For God to help me be a good wife and mother
2. For God’s will for and direction in ministry
3. For God to help me forgive
4. For God to help me with the loss of my Momma

So as I was packing up these journals, I came across the one I used in 2007.  The entry that I opened up to was right at the time that we were fixing to move to Union City, TN, from Pell City, AL.  It seemed so relevant to my life now, 7 years later, that I had to share it this week as my ‘Tuesdays with Sarah’ blog post.  Please Note:  I am typing these verbatim from what I had written in my prayer journal.  Some of the details may not be pertinent right now, but the gist behind it is timeless.

9/28/2007
Friday Morning
6:30 a.m.
My Backyard – Pell City

Lord,

I just got out of the shower.  I’ve been up since 3:30, I guess, when I fed Elsie.  I’ve been very productive, with the move and all coming up, but I haven’t once stopped to thank you, tell you “I’m nervous”, or to say “I trust in You”.  So I got out of the shower with every intention to finish cleaning for Kristin’s visit tonight, and do more move stuff… when through the blinds You caught my attention with that BIG, fat moon of Yours!  I’m not sure why, but I’m pretty sure You are wanting to tell me something.

So I’m sitting on our patio with wet hair, in Zoe’s Little Tykes yellow chair.  My ears are open to you… speak now… Please.

Original Drawing from Journal

So I drew the moon here.  My first thoughts are:

1. Comma
2. Ying Yang
3. Fetus

Maybe it’s not about what it looks like.  The moon does what?

1. Circles the earth as it circles the sun
2. Reflects the sun
3. Controls the tides (based on the distance it is to the earth)

The moon has 4 phases, but the moon doesn’t stay in one place, even if it likes that phase the best.  (I think this is something you are trying to tell me!)

I heard a Sara Groves song this morning called ‘You are the Sun’.  The lyrics are:

You are the sun shining down on everyone
Light of the world giving light to everything I see
Beauty so brilliant I can hardly take it in
And everywhere You are is warmth and light

And I am the moon with no light of my own
Still You have made me to shine
And as I glow in this cold dark night
I know I can’t be a light unless I turn my face to You

Shine on me with Your light
Without You I a­m a cold dark stone
Shine on me I have no light of my own
You are the sun, You are the sun, You are the sun
And I am the moon

END OF ENTRY

A few months later, there was this entry..

12/20/2007
12:22 a.m.
Thursday Morning
My bedroom – Union City
Well, Lord, You mooned me again!  Is this going to be our thing now?  No more shower time (where you usually speak to me)… just a good MOON ever so often?!

This time, I was going to bed, just turned my light off, and there You were… in all Your Glory!  I immediately turned the light back on, got my Bible and journal, and looked out the window.  Last time, I tried to fight You, but You ultimately won!

First, I looked out, and I immediately noticed it wasn’t a full moon… about ¾ was more like it.  And immediately felt You (heard You) tell me we haven’t seen the entire picture here yet in Union City of what all You have intended for us here, so to not be discouraged in this slow time.

Second, as I was looking, I could see a smaller-sized circle in front of the moon… like a small clone of the moon.  As I moved, the angle would change, but it still stayed there.  I took my glasses off, closed one eye at a time, went to 2 other windows, and it was still there.  I thought maybe something crazy in the sky was happening.  So I went to our back door, and it was still there.  I opened the door, and it was GONE.  So….

I figure I’m just seeing some sort of reflection of the moon through or due to the glass in the window.  Well, immediately I heard You say, “You are to be a reflection of Me.  I Am the sun, you are the moon.  But what you are seeing is the reflection of yourself – your true self.  The moon is pretty, it thinks it’s pretty; but it can’t see itself.  Sarah, my child, what are you or who are you reflecting?”  Then You ended with, “It’s time for you to analyze your reflection”.

I can’t believe how quickly I heard You speak to me tonight, Lord!  Please help my ears always be ready!

Love you! – Sarah

II Corinthians 3:18 – And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory are being transformed into His likeness, with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Psalm 27:19 – As water reflects a face so a man’s heart reflects the man.

END OF ENTRY

And back to May 2014…

I love how God is always trying to talk to us.  We usually are too busy to notice, but He’s always trying to communicate something to us.  And I undoubtedly believe He uses nature often.  Scripture even says in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”  Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”  The week I packed my prayer journals and discovered these entries about God ‘mooning’ me was the same week that we had a ‘blood moon’ eclipse.  So that really made me think even more about what God was telling me back in 2007 and that maybe God was trying to talk to me about it some more, 7 years later.

“Blood Moon” Eclipse

I kept reading and hearing about this ‘blood moon’ eclipse on the news and on Facebook and how it could mean that the Apocalypse is surely upon us 🙂  Scott and I had also taken the girls to the planetarium here in Huntsville on Monte Sano Mountain that weekend, and the entire lesson was about the moon and eclipses!  And although I’m not necessarily a lover of all things ‘space’, I cannot help myself from looking up into the night sky and falling deeper and deeper in love with God.  And as I look at the moon, Sara Groves’ lyrics play through my head again…

And I am the moon with no light of my own
Still You have made me to shine
And as I glow in this cold dark night
I know I can’t be a light unless I turn my face to You

The moon is beautiful, but none of its beauty is due to anything of its own.  It’s just a rock!  A big rock!  The sun is what brings out the moon’s beauty.  And it’s the same with us.  We are nothing but dirt and dust.  A bunch of little tiny rocks all stuck together only by the breath of God.  The ‘Son’ is what brings out our beauty!  I, Sarah Smyth, am nothing but a cold, dark stone, but God continues to shine His beautiful light on me.  And as long as I keep my face turned towards Him, He will use me to reflect His glory to a dark world.  Ever so often, I need to analyze my reflection, just like He told me 7 years ago.  I need to check and make sure I’m reflecting the ‘Sun’, and not some other bright and shiny thing this world has to offer.  It’s reflection analysis time.

Keep your eyes to the night sky, friends.  You never know when God is trying to moon you too 🙂