The Lesser Light

The Lesser Light
A Devotion for the UCC Science and Technology Network On the 48th Anniversary of the First Human Moon Landing

14And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. 16God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth,18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Genesis 1:14-19, NRSV

Forty-eight years ago today, human beings first stepped on a heavenly body that was not the planet Earth. Neil Armstrong announced to the breathless audience watching from their homes, in pubs and bars, and at work in every country around the world that the moment was “[O]ne small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” The advances in technology that have come out of the crewed space program caused exponential leaps in our computing abilities, our understanding of the universe, and our recognition that we have only one planet to call home for the foreseeable future, the “Pale Blue Dot” Carl Sagan described so eloquently.

The poet who wrote Genesis 1 lived before the idea of the sun being at the center of our solar system was first proposed (by Greek philosophers in the 5th century BCE, much earlier than most people realize!). The idea that the moon was the “lesser light” made sense to those who could not know that its light is the reflection of sunlight and an essential part of our existence on Earth.

The moon keeps Earth from wobbling on its axis by more than 2.4 degrees. If Earth wobbled in a more extreme way, say 3-5 degrees, the radical ambient temperature changes over periods as short as 100,000 years would prevent most if not all life from evolving. Our “lesser light” is not just a jewel in the sky, not just the object of human dreams and aspirations, but an essential part of what make our existence, and thus our relationship with God, possible.

How amazing is our God that the laws that govern creation are so exact to allow this without God moving things around or making an adjustment here or there along the way? And how much more amazing that we who bear God’s image within us can learn those laws and use them to step foot on our own moon, and someday, hopefully in my lifetime, Mars and even some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn? If this possibility doesn’t leave you gasping in awesome wonder, think about this: humanity has only had the capacity to leave Earth orbit for 50 years. Imagine what we can do in another 50 years when we continue to tap into God’s imagination within us…

Prayer: Holy Creator God, thank you for the laws that placed the Lesser Light in exactly the right place for us to exist. Thank you for human imagination and ingenuity that allowed us to step foot on the moon, and for the ongoing excitement to explore more of your creation beyond Earth orbit. May we live in awesome wonder of your universe as we move away from home, assured that you are with us wherever we may go. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Ruth Shaver completed her D.Min. at Lancaster Theological Seminary in 2016. She has completed a book manuscript called In Awesome Wonder: God’s Supremely Good Creation and the Science That Makes It Happen based on her dissertation, which also includes a hands-on intergenerational science curriculum for churches. She resides in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and is in search and call for an intentional interim/designated term pastorate. She previously served congregations in the Massachusetts and Penn West Conferences.