Reflection of Moonlight in the pre-dawn

The last couple mornings have been generous with the setting moon so that as I would wake up, the moon just brightened up the time before the dawn. I walked across the grass and see my my footsteps in the white dew left by the cool night air. Not only then but last night before 9:00 the moon was paired with the planet Jupiter, and I marveled at the beauty - paired and yet independent. Diana and Jupiter conversing in the night sky as they passed by -- but we were the ones who were passing by- hurtling through space at  >69 K MPH! Doesn't that boggle the mind? It looks like we are standing still..

 I think if I had not been blessed with being raised as a Christian, I would have made a good moon worshiper; following something like the Virgin Artemis ( or Diana) of Ephesus. The experience of the worshipers of Ephesus helped to lay the ground work for the Virgin Mary Cult but the awe of nature was stripped form the pagan cult and replaced by the emphasis on purity by the male dominated  church leaders who had problems with  uppity women.

The Christianity that  Jesus followed was based on the prophetic strain of Judaism, especially the prophet Micah: "God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  Part of the problem with Christianity is that the Establishment of the church as an "official" religion reduced worship to buildings, the medieval church focused in on sin and guilt rather than thanksgiving and awe, the Enlightenment reduced  faith to the acceptance of  intellectual propositions and modern times reduced commitment to mental and emotional cathexis to an institution. Through through those process we have domesticated God and removed the Divine from daily life.. 

We have forgotten about a commitment to justice, we have gotten used to a hardening of mercy as we develop a condemning stance on those who disagree with us and we have lost our capacity for humility by forgetting to be filled with awe. We have isolated praise of God to the Sunday morning hour as long as it doesn't take too much time from our own agendas. I think of the lines from Alice Walker's The Color Purple :
Shug: More than anything God love admiration.
Celie: You saying God is vain?
Shug: No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don't notice it.
Celie: You saying it just wanna be loved like it say in the bible?
Shug: Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance, and holla just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention... except walk?
[they laugh]
Shug: Oh Miss Celie, I feels like singing!  

One of the joys of looking at the sky  and seeing the moon or walking on the beach is that I "feels like singing" in praise of God.