Flickr Photo by: Lawria
The interest in the recent lunar eclipse has stirred up thoughts about what an amazing gift the moon is to us.
While the sun is far greater, a lunar eclipse shows that the moon has an apparent size in the sky equal to the sun.
A fascinating online article in Universe Today explains this in the following quote:
“In absolute terms, the Sun and the Moon couldn’t be more different in size. The Sun measures 1.4 million km across, while the Moon is a mere 3,474 km across. In other words, the Sun is roughly 400 times larger than the Moon. But the Sun also happens to be 400 times further away than the Moon, and this has created an amazing coincidence.
From our perspective, the Sun and the Moon look almost exactly the same size. This is why we can have solar eclipses, where the Moon passes in front of the Sun, just barely obscuring it from our view.”
Amazing isn’t it. Not only these facts about the way the sun and moon work together to make life possible, but that so many of our neighbors are convinced that it is a lot easier to believe that the life sustaining contributions of the sun and moon are a coincidence— than to believe the account of Genesis that says,
On the fourth day of creation, “God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.” Genesis 1:16–19 (NLT)
You’ve probably heard as I have that, together, these two great lights have a way of pointing beyond themselves to the difference between the God described here and everything else that can only reflect him– more or less.
Any other interesting thoughts on what an amazing gift the moon is to our survival?
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