Full Moons and Friends

I was coming back to our town from Saturday Night Church in the next town over.  The night was already full-blown, the Winter Solstice only a couple weeks away.  It's that time of year when nighttime gets all the overtime and daylight goes to Wal-Mart hours...part-time with decreased benefits.

The road ahead looked clear but I was driving in the 40s, cultivating the vain hope that if I do hit a slick spot of black ice I'll have time to react.

Yeah, right.  Cat-like reflexes.  'Fraid the cat was traded in for a sloth awhile ago.  That would also explain the green moss-like stuff on my back hair.

Moving tensely through the black fingers of leafless trees and intermittent dark walls of pines, I came around a bend to see a full moon rising above the highway but not yet clearing the trees.

The black road had a silver sheen.  The white-dashed striping glowed softly, splitting the road that was now edged by glistening, faintly sparkling snow.  A few small diamond stars drilled glittering pinholes in the black sky around the moon.

Wow.  One corner and a full moon.  What a difference, eh?  Not so scary and tense.

I took a pull of almost-cold Elixir from the gas station travel cup.  Even almost frozen this stuff still shakes the hair follicles enough to energize what M. Hercule Poiret calls "the little grey cells".

Okay. Yeah.

A 4th grade physical science lesson glides by.  The moon gets its light by reflecting the sun's light from the other side of the earth.  I can't see the sun but I know it's there because there's a full moon.

Huh.

Like family and friends.  Life can be cold, dark, and scary.  Then someone reflects His kindness or shows His care.  Yeah.

Full moon people.

Everybody needs 'em.  Just like the warming air of the car defroster on a frozen night of driving.  Helping me see.  Keeping me warm.

Folks who tell us He still loves us and  we're special because He made us that way.  Weird, but special.  And loved.  Very much loved.

Its not easy to notice those kinda friends during the bright warmth of day when things are fast-paced, thrilling, and so gerbil-in-the-wheel busy.

But when the dark comes, they shine.

Those night-light friends.  Those little acts of kindness.  Those words of encouragement.  The quiet listening and nodding.  The smiling and the love.

Full moon people.

They shine with His light.  Something much bigger and brighter than themselves.  And because they're there,  the night isn't as dark.  Or the road as scary.

So shine on, guys.  Shine on.

And...thanks.