Moving Away

16/04/2012 12:00

It had been a very pleasant half an hour. I’d been on my evening walk around the Oval. I was wending my way back home when I saw it. It looked like a star, but it was moving. It kept moving closer to the moon – the beautiful, polished, silvery, football-shaped moon that was smiling brightly down at me. The twinkling lights of the aeroplane drew very close to the moon and then started moving away.

 

I was fascinated! As my feet trod home-wards, I kept my eyes on it. But suddenly something very strange occurred. I could suddenly see from the corner of my eyes that the moon was receding. The moon seemed to be moving away from the plane.

 

Was it?

 

No! It was just how it seemed to me. That’s all it was. Just like the ground and the trees seem to move when I sit inside a plane that’s begun to taxi around the runway of the airport; that's how the moon 'moved'! A moving object seems to be still and the still object seems to be moving at times! An illusion.

 

And so I realised, that although it looked as if the moon was racing across the sky, it really wasn’t. Although it seemed as if the moon was racing away from the aeroplane, in actual fact it wasn't! Yes, the moon does move all the time, just as the earth does. However, what was happening now was different. In relation to the moving aeroplane, the moon was stationary. But looks are deceptive sometimes, aren’t they? As clearly shown in this instance!

 

The truth was that it was the plane was moving away from the moon!

 

A distortion of facts. An error in my vision.

 

I reflected then that it was just as it was with God and myself. God and us! God and humankind.

 

Sometimes, when cirucmstances go askew, it’s easy to feel that God has moved away! Where is God then? Is He around? Does He care? Has He moved away? Is He asleep? Should I wake Him up?

 

But of course, the truth is far grander than that. God never ever moves away from me. If there is one thing I am sure of today, it is that God is. And that He is who He says He is. A God of compasion. A God of love. A God of tender mercy. And Grace. He never move aways from me. He never moves away from you. He is always there! Yes. Always!

 

It is I who move away from Him. I do it with my indifference. I do it with my pride. Or my self focus. I do it with my doubt. And my ill will towards others. I do it when I forget to look at the whole picture. And see only part of His story. When I gaze at the wrong speck in the sky!

 

No – God never ever moves away from me.

He is even closer than I realise.