The Brilliance of a Full Moon

Have you mooned anybody lately? I hope you have. Okay, not in the way you’re thinking. Let me explain what I mean.
I was mesmerized by the full moon this past week. It was HUGE! I later found out that the moon was orbiting closer than normal to the earth. That got me thinking about some things. Of course, we all know that the moon has no light of its own. What we see is its reflection of the sun’s light, but sometimes things get in the way of us seeing that reflection. As I came inside a few minutes ago, I noticed that for as brilliant as the moon was last night, it was not visible at all tonight. The reason? It is cloudy out there. In exactly two weeks, the moon will not reflect any of the sun’s light. In fact, there will be no evidence that the moon even has the ability to reflect light because the earth will be between the moon and the sun. The moon will be the same; the sun will be the same, but the world will get in the way. Does that ever happen in your life?
I’m sure we have all heard sermons and such on how we should be like the moon and reflect the Son’s light. That sounds good until you realize that for 14 days of each month the moon is waning—it reflects less and less light each night until finally, it doesn’t reflect at all. Is that really how we need to be? Naturally, we would all respond, “No,” but the truth is, many of us do exactly that. We don’t mean to, we just do. The world gets in the way, and we don’t do anything to stop it.
As we allow things to come between us and Jesus, we cannot fully reflect the Son’s Righteousness. Sometimes it is a gradual thing, like the waning of the moon. Something small and insignificant, in our estimation, attracts our attention away from God. It isn’t anything so serious that it will prevent us from serving God; it just diminshes our zeal for him until our light is barely visible. Unfortunately, as long as we are reflecting the Son somewhat, we deceive ourselves into believing its good enough.
Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven,” Matthew 5:16. Where does your light come from? It isn’t really your light, but the light of the Son’s Righteousness… “I (Jesus) am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” John 8:12. We have been called to be sons of light and to reflect the Lord’s glory. If we are doing anything less than that, we are being disobedient to God. He commands us in Ephesians 5:8-10 to live as children of light and to find out what pleases the Lord. According to that verse the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Those things don’t come through osmosis. You have to actively seek the Lord and pursue his righteousness. The Lord reveals himself in his word and rewards those who are faithful.
So, how do we then live? Commit God’s word to memory, study fervently, and don’t let anything come between you and the Lord because you can’t reflect what isn’t before you. God’s desire is for you to become just like Jesus. May the Lord’s righteousness be your own. Be faithful and don’t let the world keep you from looking like Jesus.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Cor 3:18
Go reflect the Son and "moon" the world!