Shadows

Tonight, I looked up at the moon. I saw the glowing face—yes, I think the man looks sad—tidal-locked, pocked, so many miles away.

Often, I have wondered why God would create a universe so vast and unfathomable and leave it empty (no, I don’t believe in aliens).

I had a discussion once with a friend. He asked me why God would create a universe and not have life on another planet. And, I said, “why not?” We cannot always answer the “whys” and the “why nots.”

Tonight, I felt like I finally understood “empty space.” How else would we understand how small we truly are? As human beings, it is so easy to feel large, powerful, all-knowing—oh, we have it figured out—we feel like we rule the world, or at least our small part of it. Hubris, pride, arrogance, whatever a person chooses to call it—it all ends when we turn our eyes to sky.

We like to think that “primitive man” (you know who that is. The people who created the pyramids, Easter Island, Stonehenge, all of those things we cannot replicate or explain) turned his eyes to the heavens and decided to make up some sort of God to worship because he needed to feel “comforted” by that thought. The logic there has never made much sense to me. I do not think that primitive man was primitive at all. If anything, we are on a downward slide. We sit and drool in front of televisions. We relax by not having to think.

Tonight, I looked up at the moon and considered its distance. I thought about the stories in the news of distant galaxies—too far to ever be reached in my lifetime and probably beyond. What a lesson that teaches. We are but a shadow. Our concerns are finite, tiny, like a speck of dust. This does not comfort me. But, it does provide prospective.

In the past, when I lived in Iowa before, I used to stroll cemeteries in order to gain perspective on the thoughts plaguing my mind. It reminded me that we are all just “passing through” (as my father likes to say). Suddenly, the paper that was due, or the loneliness I felt, seemed manageable and almost laughable. We live. We die. The only certainty in life is death, and yet, we often push it to the very back of our thoughts. Why?

I watched the Bucket List this evening. Two men affected each other’s lives. I’ve said it many times, but to me, that is the essential purpose of this life. Who can I touch and how can I touch them?

I’ve failed in too many ways to count. I’ve lost friends, gained friends, and lost friends again. All due to foolishness and not realizing how small I truly am. In the end, we should be open. We should be compassionate. We should not care about the pettiness of the world around us. What are we here for, if not to affect each other?

Tonight, I looked up at the moon and I thought about the vastness of space. The universe is beyond my comprehension, and I believe in a God who purposely created it that way--who is so omnipotent that such a universe is possible if only to help us understand that life is but a shadow. As Solomon says, “vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” In the end, all we have is now.

All that matters is the lives we affect, the people we meet, the impressions we leave, and the memories that will linger behind us long after we are gone...