Chapter 3 - The Moon

The day’s sleep was finished, and it was now time for David, Hope, and Judah to wake up and begin a new night.  Tonight the moon was full and the stars were particularly bright. From the nest, this family of owls could see the entire sky. Momma and Daddy Owl told the little owls that after breakfast, they would all continue talking about God’s message in the sky. David and Hope could hardly wait! They were very excited and were singing and dancing the whole morning before breakfast. And because David and Hope were excited, little Judah was excited too. He knew that when David and Hope began to sing and dance, something good was about to happen.

After breakfast was finished, they all sat down together on one side of the nest. After spending some time in prayer and worshipping the Lord, Momma Owl stretched out her wing, pointed to the moon, and began to talk.

“My precious ones,” she said, “do you see that big full moon over there, shining just over those mountains?”

“Yes, Momma,” they replied.

“Well, what would happen if the moon didn’t shine at night?” Momma Owl asked.

Hope answered, “It would be very, very dark outside, even darker than it already is!”

“That’s right, Hope,” Momma Owl said. “And do you know where the moon gets its light from?”

David and Hope looked at each other with a puzzled look on their face. They weren’t sure about that one. Momma Owl could see this, and so she continued, “The moon get’s its light from the sun. During the day, you can see the sun directly, but during the night, you only see a little bit of the sun’s light as it bounces off the moon. It is the sun’s light bouncing off of the moon that makes it white and shiny at night.”

“Wow, that is so cool!” David exclaimed.

Then, as Daddy Owl reached into a drawer and pulled out a flash-light, he began saying, “In this age of darkness and disobedience, not everyone in the world has turned away from God. There are many who still seek to follow Jesus with all of their hearts, and who are trying to share the gospel with others. These ones are like the bright moon in this age of darkness.  One day, we will see Jesus, the one who shines brighter than the sun, directly face-to-face in our resurrected bodies. Until that day, just as the sun shines its light on the moon in the darkness, so Jesus in this age of darkness shines His light in, through, and upon His people. When He shines His light in them through the Holy Spirit, His light and fire burns away the darkness and evil from their hearts. When He shines His light through and upon them, His light flows through them and bounces off of them, so that those who are still stuck in the darkness can see the light of the good news of Jesus, too, before the sun comes in the morning and they have no more time to repent.”

Daddy Owl then turned on the flashlight and shined it toward little Judah’s head. When he did this, Judah’s head began to shine as the light bounced off of it into David and Hope’s eyes. David and Hope giggled, turning their eyes away from the light because it was hurting their eyes.

Then Momma Owl said, “But that isn’t all. The moon also teaches us about the life of Jesus when he came the first time and entered into this world of darkness to save us from our sins. Children, I have a fancy word for you to learn. Repeat after me: in–car–na–tion.”

“In–car–na–tion,” David and Hope repeated together, squinting their eyes as they tried to focus very hard. The only part of the word in–car–na–tion that little Judah understood, however, was car. So he began running around the nest making car noises with his beak. Everyone laughed.

Then Momma Owl continued, “We use the word incarnation to talk about a very special miracle that God did because of His great love and mercy for us. David and Hope, when Adam and Eve sinned and ate the fruit they were not supposed to eat, do you remember what their punishment was?”

“Death,” David and Hope responded.

“That’s right,” Momma Owl said. “Now, do you think God wanted them to receive the punishment they deserved?”

“Nooo,” David and Hope answered, with a look of relief on their face.

“That’s right,” Momma Owl said again. “God didn’t want people to receive the punishment of death. But they still deserved the punishment of death. God’s solution to this problem was to take the punishment of death that we deserved, and to put that punishment upon Himself. But, God was not a man, so He couldn’t die. So what do you think God would need to do in order to take our punishment of death on Himself?”

David and Hope stared at eachother  as they thought about the answer. Then David’s eyes got very, very big, and he said, slowly, “He would need to become a man Himself!”

Then Daddy Owl said, “That’s exactly right David. And that is exactly what He did. God, whose throne in the heavens is surrounded only by light, love, and goodness, in His great mercy choose to leave that beautiful place of light and glory and come into this age of darkness as a man in order to save us. And that man went to the cross and died so that we could live forever with Him in the resurrection. Do you know what that man’s name is?”

“Jesus!” David and Hope shouted.

“And,” Momma Owl continued as she picked up Judah, “before Jesus could become a man, he first had to become…a baby!” As soon as she said that, she began to tickle Judah under his wings as he giggled.

Daddy Owl then said, “And when Jesus came, God used the moon to tell the world what He was doing. Let me ask you a question. When the moon first starts to appear in the sky every month, does it start out small or big?”

David, who had been studying the different phases of the moon in his night classes at owl school, had the answer. He said, “The moon goes through a cycle every month. It starts off as a teeny-tiny crescent moon that looks like the letter C. Every night after that, the crescent moon gets bigger and bigger, until it becomes a half-moon. Then, after that, the moon keeps growing until it becomes a full moon and looks like a perfect circle in the sky. Then after the full moon, the process goes backwards until the moon disappears and starts the cycle over again the next month. While the moon is getting bigger and bigger before it becomes full, it is called a waxing moon, and while it is getting smaller and smaller after the full moon, it is called a waning moon. Every month, the moon starts this same process of waxing and waning over again.”

“Very good, David,” said Daddy Owl. “On the day when God told Mary that He was putting baby Jesus in her belly, in the sky that night there was a teeny-tiny crescent moon in the sky. God was telling the world that He, the God of all power and light, had just entered this age of darkness and become a teeny-tiny baby in Mary’s belly.”

“Woah, that is amazing!” Hope shouted. “God must really love us if He was willing to leave all of that light and glory behind to become a man in this age of darkness!”

“Indeed,” Momma Owl said. “And you know what else? The day Jesus died on the cross and had finished His work, there was a full moon in the sky that night. It was the Passover, and every year at the Passover there is a full moon in the sky. On that day, the sky was telling us that Jesus had lived a full life and had completed His work of fully saving us from our sins.”

Then Daddy Owl said, “And the night Jesus died, it wasn’t just any full moon that appeared in the sky. Sometimes, God makes the color of the moon or sun change colors if He wants to tell us something very special and important. After Jesus died, that night a red full moon appeared in the sky. That kind of special full moon is called a blood moon, because the moon looks red like blood. What do you think God was saying to the world through the blood moon hanging in the sky that night?”

Then with words of wisdom that were clearly not her own, Hope said, “He was saying that Jesus, the only light of this dark world, had just bled on the cross in our place for the forgiveness of our sins.”

As soon as she said that, the power of the Holy Spirit gently came upon all of them in the nest, and tears of thanksgiving and joy came into everyone’s eyes. 

Then picking up a tissue, Momma Owl blew her beak and said, “Well children, we still haven’t gotten to the stars yet. But I think we’ll need to wait until tomorrow night to talk about that.”

The rest of that night, whispers and songs of “thank You, Jesus” echoed out from this family’s nest and could be heard throughout Watchful Forest.