January 21, 2020 Moon Cycle Memories

Early this morning, I looked out one of our windows and saw the crescent moon.

It’s not a great photo because I had to take it through the glass and the window screen – there are limits to how devoted I am to getting a good shot, especially from the second floor. However, it reminded me of a time in our homeschooling experience many years ago. We were using a science curriculum that was very hands-on called Science the Search. Almost all of the learning was done by observation, not by reading a text about the subject. This particular lesson was on the moon. We were instructed to wait until the first day of the full moon to start and on that evening, we were to take notes on when the moon came out, how high in the sky it was, what it looked like, etc.. And then we were to do the same thing for the whole month. On the first night we went out with our papers on clipboards and made our notes. Check. We went out the second night at the same time and were perplexed to find out that the moon didn’t show up until 45 minutes or so later. And so it went for the rest of the month. Well, it’s certainly understandable that our young children didn’t realize what the moon cycle was all about, but I was shocked that in all my 40+ years of living, I’d never even noticed that the moon rose at a different time each night, going all the way through the 24-hour cycle throughout the month. Eureka! That was a great homeschooling moment for me, although plenty embarrassing. How could I not have known?

The works of the LORD are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. Psalm 111:2

This amazing world is such a grand testimony to God’s greatness – it’s a shame I don’t always pay attention to what He is saying right outside my windows.

By the way, my great ignorance about the moon is just between you and me. I wouldn’t want too many people to know what an airhead I’ve been.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.