Lights

Photo by Kristof Zerbe 2014

To cap off the holiday season, my family and I recently visited Christmas Town at Busch Gardens Tampa. While exploring all the animal exhibits, walking through the festively decorated park, and watching the entertaining shows, we were eagerly anticipating sunset, when the park’s main holiday attraction would come to life.

Lights! As we had learned from the trivia quiz preceding the ice show, workers began stringing lights from trees, archways, and buildings starting in June! Good thing, because there were more than 3 million lights, covering 60 miles if lined up end to end!

Our viewing of lights began auspiciously with the Serengeti Light Show, a spectacular display on a huge tree-shaped screen and on the neighboring buildings of what seemed like hundreds of thousands of lights, all changing colors and patterns in synchrony to Christmas music. Impressed and delighted, we were ready for more!

With all the exercise from exploring throughout the day, we had also worked up quite an appetite! So we began the long trek to Christmas Town, not only to view the lights but to sample the delectable treats from various food vendors that opened only after dark.

But as we approached the entrance, the path grew dim, and we wondered what had happened to all the lights we had been promised. The main gate to Christmas Town had been barred shut, and a park officer informed us that it would be closed all evening because of a power outage!

Disappointed, we made our way back to the tram taking us to the parking lot. As we walked to our car, however, we were unexpectedly blessed to see the true star of the show – the moon!

On that night was a supermoon, also known as a Wolf Moon, which was particularly large due to the moon illusion, in which low-hanging moons appear oversized. It was veiled in wispy clouds that gave it a silvery aura, with the moon’s familiar landmarks alternately highlighted or shrouded, depending on how the clouds danced in the changing winds.

The experience reminded me that all of man’s efforts pale in comparison to God’s majesty, creativity, power and handiwork (Psalm 19:1). Because we are made in His image (Genesis 1:26), we too are creative and productive, with feats of ingenuity producing artificial beauty like that in the light show.

But none of this is possible unless God allows it, for without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Because we live in a sin-cursed world (Genesis 3:14-19), all it takes is a switch malfunction or tripped circuit breaker or some other mechanical failure for all of man’s brilliant ideas and hard work to malfunction. Often the failure stems from our own mind, body, or will (Psalm 73:26).

But God never fails (Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 23:14). He consistently and faithfully regulates the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the circling of the planets in their orbits, and the movements of the stars and galaxies across the universe (Psalm 19:1-6; 104). That night, sadly invisible to us because of the clouds, the supermoon was accompanied by a particularly luminous planet Jupiter and the constellation Orion, which would have been a spectacular celestial display under better viewing conditions.

Even though we couldn’t see Jupiter and Orion, we knew that God had placed them there. Because we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), we know He is working all things together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28), even when we can’t see the road map or the destination of the journey He has planned for us since before time began (2 Timothy 1:9). It is enough to hear His still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12) guiding our next step, just as He did for Abram when he took the first step of faith to the Promised Land (Genesis 12:1-3).

The moon’s brilliant illumination that night also reminded me that we have no life or light of our own, but only that which God has given us (John 1:1-9). The moon itself is a mass of stone cold, dark rock. But when the sun sets and shines on it, sunlight reflected from the moon lights up the dark night.

Only Jesus Christ is the true Light (John 1:9), the Light of the World (John 8:12; 9:5). Once we are saved by trusting in His death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), He gives us the privilege of being His lights in this dark, sin-cursed world (Matthew 5:14).

May His light in and on us shine so brightly before men that they can see the true Light and find the Way to His saving grace and to eternal life!

Copyright 2026 Laurie Collett