BLUE MOON

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath.  These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ (Colossians 2:16-17).

It was double digits below zero when I parked the car in front of the church at 11:20 p.m. New Year's Eve.  When I got out of the car the snow crunched under my feet.  I looked up at the second full moon of the month and it actually was tinted blue due to the ice crystals in the air.  I had heard earlier in the day that the last blue moon on New Year's Eve was in 1990 and the next one will not be until 2028--I was witnessing a rare event.  These things only happen once every nineteen years.  What will this next nineteen year cycle bring?  In nineteen years I will be eighty one should I last that long and the Lord tarries.

I was the last half-hour time slot on our church's twelve-hour New Year's Eve prayer vigil.  We encourage each participant to actually go to the church to pray, but with the cold and the snow it appeared that I was the only one who ventured out to pray that night.  The weather made it understandable, but the half-filled-in sign up sheet did not.  For a church's mission statement that includes prayer as one of the necessary dynamics of its mission, this church's leadership and members did not respond all that well on New Year's Eve.  Perhaps, like the blue moon, a church that actually believes in prayer is not all that common.  We pray often, but our prayers are filled with cliche`s rather than contrition.  As I prayed that night I was reminded of the phrase from Isaiah 1:15 where the Lord says, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Isn't that frightening?

I welcome the time to pray alone in the church sanctuary from 11:30 to 12 a.m..  I expect to hear a word from the Lord, and perhaps Isaiah 1:15 was it.  When the church is empty and all is quiet, there are creaks and squeaks and walking sounds that are reminders that one is not alone.  I prayed about many things during that half-hour: pardon and forgiveness for personal failure, for the church and its mission, for each one of the church's leaders and their wives, the trials that our church members are facing, etc., but remembering that on this blue moon, I was there because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Grace&Peace;
Tom