He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Tonight, Jupiter and Venus are in conjunction. Standing outside and looking up at them got me thinking about the moon and the sun—and why the moon seems to move so much while the sun appears to rise from nearly the same place every morning.
I vaguely remember a little of this from high school science. As best I recall, it has something to do with the earth circling the sun once a year while the moon circles the earth once a month.
Whatever the explanation, it struck me that one seems to move all over the sky while the other quietly shows up day after day.
Sometimes trying to find the moon is a little like looking for a golf ball. One night it’s easy to spot. The next night you’re not entirely sure where it went.
The sun, on the other hand, is remarkably predictable. It rises in the east and sets in the west day after day, year after year. We can pull out our phones and know exactly what time it will rise and set tomorrow. It’s been doing that our entire lives.
It’s like being on my home course, which I know very well. The sun is like a tee marker that the superintendent moves a few inches each day. Unless I’m paying close attention, it’s barely noticeable. But the moon is like showing up and finding my tee markers on an entirely different tee box.
One gets your attention. The other quietly stays where you expect it to be.
Most of us pay far more attention to things that move than to things that remain. We notice changing markets, changing diagnoses, changing relationships, changing emotions, and changing circumstances. We notice the moon.
What we often overlook is the steady faithfulness of God operating quietly in the background every day.
As I stood there looking up, another thought crossed my mind: what if now simply isn’t the time? What if the score doesn’t improve? What if the deal takes longer than expected? What if the relationship isn’t restored on my timetable? What if the thing I’ve been praying for remains just beyond reach?
Most of us have a list of things we’d like God to change. Yet while we’re focused on what’s missing, we often overlook what’s already been given.
Looking back, many of today’s blessings were yesterday’s prayers—things I once hoped for, worried about, and wondered if God would ever provide.
While I was waiting, God was working. The sun kept rising. The moon kept circling. Jupiter and Venus kept following their appointed paths. Just because I couldn’t see movement didn’t mean nothing was happening.
In my experience, God is rarely in a hurry. Most of His work in our lives happens a few inches at a time—a little more faith, a little more patience, a little more gratitude, and a little more trust. Then one day we look back and realize how far He has brought us.
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
Tonight, looking at Jupiter, Venus, the moon, and the stars, I was reminded that God is still running His universe with perfect timing. And somehow, that makes it a little easier to trust Him with mine.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Prayer: Lord, thank You that You see the whole course when I can barely see the next shot. Amen.