With the holidays I had the rare opportunity to set up my telescope at an overlook not far from my house to try for a picture of the waning moon as it set mid-day. Still gibbous, the moon is easy to observe during broad daylight. However, as it approaches the horizon, the diffusion of sunlight in the slightly hazy and increasingly oblique atmosphere makes it harder and harder to see. Because it takes so long to set up the scope, I have to commit before I can tell whether the moon will be visible when it reaches the horizon. So I took the shots I hoped would give me a colossal setting moon behind a Dallas building, but could see as its descent continued that I would get nothing, the sky’s brightness washing out any lunar remnant. Almost.
Back at the house I looked at the shots on the computer and could just see what a careful observer may or may not be able to pick out in the photo. It is the faintest (but still huge) crescent of the moon’s silhouette just above the construction crane.
In the world of the image, there is happening all of that construction and office work and no one even noticing the halo of the enormous monarch of nocturnal skies faithfully suspended above and behind their activity. In our world, there is happening all of our planning and strategy, effort and exhaustion, working and serving, and there is us rarely if ever us noticing the Sovereign Monarch of every sky faithfully providing beyond all of our toil.
This week, may we remember to look toward His arc even when it is not plain to see.