I want to be like the moon.

Let's think about it: The moon is nice, right? I mean if you get the right amount of clouds, sprinkle the horizon with some shaded treetops and place it all around a full moon, you'll have yourself something pretty captivating. And even in the vast night sky, you can't help but notice the moon. It's the brightest and most magnificent part of that velvety dome. How many poets and lyricists and artists throughout the ages have marveled over its splendor?
But this beauty is nothing on its own. In fact, if it relied on its own existence, we wouldn't be able to see the moon like we do. It would be lost in the night sky: unnoticeable, easy to look over. No, the moon needs something much more powerful and majestic than itself in order for it to shine like it does. It needs the Sun.

All of the light we get from the moon is simply what it reflects from the Sun. And while it's still good light (after all, it's the same light), it's not as strong what is provided by the Sun. Sure, the moon can help you see danger ahead, and when there's no other light around, it can help a lost person find his way to safety. But the Sun reveals all. When the Sun shines, it's impossible to hide in its light; everything is exposed and becomes much clearer. Yes, the moon relies completely on the light of the Sun to be what it is. And once we learn more about the moon and we find out there's no way it can produce that kind of light on its own, we begin to search in other places until we find the source.

If we were to live in a world of only night – without ever seeing or hearing about the Sun – from the light we observe from the moon, we would still have enough reason to believe that there must be a Sun somewhere and that Sun must be even more than what we know the moon to be. And if we cared enough – if we knew that this Sun gives life and warmth and joy and far beyond anything the moon could ever give – we would search for that Sun until daylight.

Lord, make me a moon.