October’s Full Moon is Beautiful
Blog for October 15, 2008 (Wednesday)
(Actual time of writing: Tuesday evening at 10:00 p.m.)
As I looked into the eastern sky this evening, I saw a big beautiful moon. The October full moon seems to be the biggest and most beautiful of the year.
Wanda and I married on October 3. In 1979, we celebrated our 26th anniversary, and after dinner took a little walk along the Rockport beach. The moon was full, the breeze gentle, the slight waves glistening in the moon’s glow, and the air clean and fresh. We walked hand in hand, then paused to embrace each other. “Isn’t this beautiful?” I commented, and went on, “Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?” She smiled and seemed hesitant with her reply. “Is something wrong?” I asked. “I have a problem,” she replied. “I have to see the doctor.” She had ovarian cancer.
The surgery was on her 48th birthday, October 18th, and lasted most of the day. In due time, years later, she was declared cured of the cancer. She lived to see all her children grown, and saw all her grandchildren come into the world. She had many physical problems, several surgeries, took a lot of medicine and knew a lot of pain, but she had a strong will and loved God. Finally those problems took their toll, and at age 70 she went home to be the Lord.
I never see the full moon in October without thinking of that night on the beach in Rockport 29 years ago.
This evening I was looking at that same moon hovering above the Loop 610 and Highway 290 interchange, through the broken branches of trees that made it through a terrible storm. I focused on it amid the sounds of the city and its traffic, in the glare of the colorful lights all around me. But it is the same moon. This is the same old earth. God is still in charge of His world, and life goes on. As Ecclesiastes 3 tells us, there is a time for everything.
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No, this is not the “harvest moon.” For a list of the full moon names, click here.