April 13, 2020 | St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands | Annette Walwyn Michael
I was relaxing at my deck on a sunny Sabbath afternoon. That’s when I saw the moon in the clear eastern sky. Yes, the moon!–a pale moon, a daylight moon, giving the promise of a bright moonlit night later, much later.
As I gazed at the pale daylight moon, like a child at a science fair, I began to question: how come the moon appeared during the day? Wasn’t that light created “to rule the night?” (Genesis 1:16). Why hadn’t I studied astrophysics? Was it too late to apply? I needed answers.
And how I longed to see the moonlight later in the dark sky. True, the sun had not yet set, and a gentle breeze was blowing. It was a perfect day. Yet, somehow I longed for the moonlight just as I longed for life to return to normal when, face masks and social distancing behind us, we could hug our loved ones again. We could exchange greetings over the back fence with our neighbors without counting off the required six feet between us. I longed for churches to open again, for students in crisp uniforms to wait for school busses to take them to school again, for a time when the lack of ventilators did not dominate the evening news, and hazmat suits in hospital wards were no longer routine due to the Coronavirus. I longed for that time.
I longed for the moonlight, for a normal life as it used to be. Then I thought of God’s celestial timepiece. That clock is still set to “normal.” In spite of the disasters all around us, the sun still rises and sets with comforting regularity. Sparkling dew still softens the waiting grass every evening. Waves still break on the white, sandy shores, mango trees still blossom in March, and the moon still reappears with dependable regularity. God is still on the throne. Hallelujah!
I still do not know how much longer the COVID-19 Coronavirus will plague the globe, how much longer this pandemic will keep us on our knees, but I do believe that I can depend on a God who does know. And I am confident that in His time, “The Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings” Malachi 4:2.
Annette Walwyn Michael is a member of Central Adventist Church in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and a retired pastor’s wife.