Like the Moon Reflects the Sun...

It always amazes me how you can read the same Bible passage a hundred times, but suddenly glean something entirely new from it.  This happened to me a few weeks ago.

I just started an in-depth study of the book of Genesis because I haven't read the entire book of Genesis since my Old Testament classes in college.  And because I embarked on a plan to study each book of the Bible in depth for the next however long it takes me.  And Genesis seemed like the best place to start.  Since it is the beginning after all.

So the other night I had my 2 study Bibles, 3 commentaries, my regular every-day Bible to make notes in, and my copy of the Message (good paraphrases can be great for in-depth Bible study to drive home the main points of the passage), my notebook, pens, highlighter and cup of tea, and started into Genesis 1.

Of course before I started reading, I thought to myself how many times I've heard/read/taught this passage and just assumed that it was going to be a drudgery to get through.

But then, as usually happens when you're engaged in in depth Bible study, I came across a thought in one of the commentaries that I have never heard before, in reference to God creating the light.

"The sun is the great centre of light, and the centre of our system.

Round him the lesser orbs revolve. 

From him, too, they derive their light.

Hence he may very legitimately be viewed as an apt symbol of...the Lord.

The moon, being in herself opaque, derives her light from the sun.

She always reflects the sun's light, save when the earth and its influences intervene.

Now, as the sun is a beautiful and an appropriate symbol of Christ, so the moon strikingly reminds us of the Church... 

The world seeth Him not, but she sees Him; and she is responsible to reflect His beams upon a benighted world.

The world has no other way in which to learn anything of Christ but by the Church."

As many times as I've read and heard and taught the creation narrative, I've never once been that profoundly impacted by the relationship between the sun and the moon.  But what really hit me was that last line. The world has no other way in which to learn anything of Christ but by the Church. 

What a humbling and profound thought.  I know that more times than not I fail in my duty to reflect the Son.  At least in a way that it a true reflection of Him.  

What kind of Christ are we reflecting to the world? I think, more times than not, it is not the true Savior.  

"If the Church only walked in the light of Christ, she would assuredly reflect His light;

ad this would ever keep her in proper position. 

The light of the moon is not her own.

So it is with the Church. 

She is not called to set herself before the world."

I think it's time to start learning how to truly reflect the Son. 

-AA

MacKintosh, C. H. "Chapter I." Notes on Gensis. New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1954. 8-10. Print.