Discerning True Light Through Sun and Moon
Poem★★★★In our lack of discernment we are like the small boy who said that the moon was more important than the sun, because the moon shines by night when we have no light, and the sun shines by day when we already have all the light we need. As he failed to understand that the sun is the great giver of physical light, so do we fail to discern Jesus Christ, who came to bring spiritual light to all the world.
Dr. George Buttrick, in his book called Prayer, tells us that the carpenters who belonged to the early guilds chose as their motto these words of Jesus, “I am the door.” Therefore, they decided to make all doors so that the two smaller upper panels and the two larger lower panels would form a cross, and this custom has come down to our own times. Daily we go in and out of doors, yet how many of us recognize in them the sign of the cross? We are too limited as to vision. The poet speaks of “every common bush aflame with God,” but we must have real spiritual vision if we are to discern this.
The point
A poem contrasting limited human discernment—like a boy thinking the moon more useful than the sun—with the spiritual blindness of failing to see Christ as the true light of the world. The lesson is that we often misunderstand what truly gives us life.