The Glory

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” Revelation 4:11

Glory: Beauty, Majesty, Splendor, Light. All of these parts of Webster's definition got me to thinking. How could anyone add to the Glory of God? After all, He's the source of it all. It's a mind-boggling thing, and hard to imagine, but when the twenty four elders drop to their knees and cast their crowns at the foot of God's throne, that's what they're trying to do, give Him more Glory.


So I tried to imagine what that was like.


Remember the moon landings? I was just a kid in '69 when Neil Armstrong made the first human footprint there. The pictures showed a gray surface that stood in marked contrast to the white spacesuits of the astronauts. Think about a full moon. Am I the only one who wondered how that dingy looking surface gave us the brightness and whiteness that we could see in the sky once a month?


I decided to refresh my memory by looking up some moon pictures on line. I got some bright full moon shots that reminded me of how beautiful it is – and why we have so many romantic songs and notions about it. “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!” Sing it, Dean-O! But I also got some less romantic pics. They showed not only the gray and dingy look, they also showed craters. Lots and lots of craters. Remember Complexion Drama? I know it's been awhile, but “zits happened”. One of the less appealing nicknames that flew around then was “Crater Face”, because when we saw closeups of our oldest satellite, we saw evidence of damage. Meteors have been smacking the moon in the face since she was born – better her than us – and leaving big ugly holes everywhere like she was teenager. But when we see the full moon in all her (ahem) GLORY, we don't see her flaws OR her short-comings, only her beauty.


The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Isaiah 60:19


In years past, some idio...uh, I mean, critics have scoffed at the Bible's account of the moon giving light by saying that the moon is just a big rock with no light source. Nit-picking at the use of figurative language helps them miss something pretty cool, not to mention important. Where does the moon's light come from? It reflects the sun. In the sun's light, she is gloriously beautiful, her flaws invisible.


How can I give glory to God? By being in the Light. Out of that Light, my flaws are painfully obvious, and I prefer to hide, but in His Presence, the Glory transforms me and brings honor to Him. Let me just say to you who think “My flaws and failures are too much”, take a look at the moon. If the sun can make that much difference in that dirty old rock, how much more can the Son make in you?