The Moon on the Fly

He appointed the moon for seasons…

The alarm at 3:30 am jarred me awake but my wife was already stirring. The day had come to make a trip to help a daughter in Montana, and our ride to the Raleigh-Durham airport was an hour to make the first of two flights. While she dressed, I grabbed a peek of the eastern sky and saw the crescent moon. As we headed to the car, I mentioned the waning crescent that was so beautifully hung just above the tree line at Gateway, our little home in Bear Creek, NC. That got her excited, so she spotted it a dozen times on the way to the airport.

It caused me to remember her first observation with me when I pointed out the nearly full moon six years earlier. I got her up from sleep to do it. “It’s the moon,” she said, with a tiny bit of ‘so what’ in her expression. I told her to look again to see the faint red ring around it, which shows up under lightly clouded conditions. That incident was many moons ago (pun intended). Now she wakes me for observing opportunities. A few nights ago, we gazed at the Lagoon Nebula (in color using astro-video tools) but it was only for 20 minutes until the tree line interfered. There was not chance to sketch.

I had to do this sketch from memory since I was behind the wheel on the way to the airport. So, it is a simple sketch with the moon size exaggerated for effect, but it is dedicated to my Lovely, who will return from her trip in the middle of the next moon cycle. Like me, she believes creation occurred as it says in the Bible. The power and majesty of our God is evident from His creation of the sun, moon, and stars on part of the fourth day of creation (Genesis 1). The verse from Psalm 104 that is in the sketch) and verses in Psalm 19 echo some of God’s purposes for their creation. Of course, the moon also gives us tides that clean our harbors and beaches. And contrary to the popular worldwide teaching that it all happened by itself without direction, the Bible’s Author says otherwise. Like creation.com, icr.org, AiG, Danny Faulkner, Werner Gitt, Jason Lisle, and dozens of other scientists or observers of God’s creation, they also believe that the God of the Bible created these things in the six-day creation week.

Want more information on biblical creation? Download the free application as linked on our site. It is designed to go on cell phones, it is free, and we do not collect any information on people who get it. Or, you can view the application on our site. The whole purpose is to give the resource to people who normally have no resources. We go to several of those places.

Want more information on the heavens and how to observe them from a biblical view? Download the free PDF from our site. Look for Astronomical Observing from a Biblical View under downloadable courses.

Do you live close to us in Bear Creek and want to see what we do, observe with us, or view some of the observing sheets that I have sketched over the years? Send us a message with your request.

Above all, realize these heavens did not happen on their own. My God did it. And, what He does, He does well.

Roland