Changeless

Wednesday in the Second Week of Lent

O Lord, your word is everlasting;
it stands firm in the heavens.
Psalm 119:89

Looking up into the night sky on my way home, I am surprised by the radiance of the moon—I did not realize it was a full. For a moment I feel out of time, as if I have lost my sense of the measure of days and weeks, as I have lost track of the changing moon.

Then it occurs to me that it is an untruth that the moon wanes and waxes, that it diminishes and then increases it presence to fullness and then lessens again. In fact, the moon is always present, always complete. It is our experience of it that changes. It is the dance of sun and earth and moon and light waves that affect our perception.

I also lose track of God’s benevolent presence in my life. I go about my day as if I am in charge of the world and then an unexpected encounter calls me back to the divine —a word of affirmation from a friend, a stranger’s act of compassion, a glimpse of the luminous full moon through the bare branches of a tree. And I feel myself comforted and reminded of the changelessness of the Holy One.

Whether barely perceived or ignored or embraced head on, God’s love abides.