Sara J. Mikkelson
Cartoon drawn by Eliza Haley, 2016
Amazing Moon
Have you ever noticed that the moon sometimes looks like a fingernail? Or noticed it in the sky during the day time? Maybe you’ve tried to imagine what it would be like to become an astronaut and fly to the moon. The moon is like our special night-light built in by God from the beginning. Try looking at the moon every day for a few weeks. You can watch how it changes from a tiny fingernail sliver to a full moon. It looks pretty amazing when you see a full moon or funny patterns in the craters, but the moon is more than just a nice thing in the sky to look at. Life on Earth as we know it would not be possible without the moon.
It took three days for astronaut Jim Irwin to travel from Earth to the moon
Seasons, Fish, and the Moon
The moon goes around Earth once every 27 and 1/3 days. Earth pulls on the moon, keeping it in orbit, but the moon is also pulling on Earth. Our planet is tilted, which is what gives us seasons. The moon pulling on Earth helps keep that tilt stable. Without the moon, our seasons would go crazy. The moon pulls on the oceans, creating tides. If you’ve ever been to a beach, you can see these tides in action, pulling the waters farther into the ocean sometimes and letting them go farther onto the beach at other times. Tides help keep our oceans moving and keep the waters from becoming too still and dead.
Genesis 1:14
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years”
Drifting
Did you know that the moon is actually moving farther away from Earth? Every year, it gets about one and one half inches farther away. The moon causes tides to happen in our ocean, but because of that, the moon is being pushed away from Earth. This is a big problem for people who say that Earth and the moon are billions of years old. If you went back in time, putting the moon in reverse, so that it was headed closer to Earth, it would be touching Earth in 1.5 billion years. Since these people say that Earth and the moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago, it would be a very big problem to have the moon touching our planet 1.5 billion years ago. The truth is that Earth and the moon were both specially designed by God, made together in the same week, just about six thousand years ago.
Other Moons
Earth is not the only planet that has a moon. Jupiter and Saturn both have long lists of moons where newly discovered moons are added every few years. While some other planets have moons, called “satellites”, because they orbit around a planet, our single large moon is very special. Other planets tend to have moons that are much smaller than themselves, but our moon is different. Earth is nearly four times bigger than the moon, making it unusually large for a moon.
“Ganymede”, one of Jupiter’s many moons, is bigger than the planet, Mercury
Making of the Moon
Have you ever wondered how the moon got here, circling around Earth? Over the years, people have come up with many different stories of how the moon became the moon. One of the most recent stories says that there was another planet about the same size as Earth that crashed into our planet. The story says that the broken, left over pieces from this crashed planet eventually gathered together to form the moon. This is a made-up story, like a fairy tale, that even a lot of adults believe. The biggest problem with this and most other moon making stories is that they leave God out of it. The Bible is the history Book of the universe – God has always been around and knows better than we do how He made things. Genesis 1:16 says that on Day 4 of creation, “God made the two great lights; the greater light [Sun] to rule the day, and the lesser light [Moon] to rule the night: He made the stars also”
Dark Circles
Have you ever noticed that the sun and moon look about the same size in the sky? The moon is actually about 400 times smaller than the sun, but the sun is 400 times farther away, so it all evens out and they look the same size. Because the sun and moon look the same size in our sky, we are sometimes able to see a spectacular solar eclipse from Earth. A solar eclipse happens when the Earth, Moon, and Sun, are all in a line. To us on Earth, it looks like the moon is covering the sun. The moon looks like a dark circle over the sun. These solar eclipses help scientists study the sun and stars. God specially designed the sun and moon so that we could learn about them. We can learn more about God by studying what He has made.
Did you know that the same side of the moon always faces earth? The “dark side” of the moon was quite mysterious before space crafts flew around it
Mirror Moon
While the stars and sun have their own way of making light, the moon just acts like a mirror, reflecting light from the sun. Just like the moon does not have any light by itself, we do not have any “light” or good to shine on our own. The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God – no one can really be good on their own. We do not have any light ourselves, but, like the moon, we can reflect the light of the Son of God – Jesus. When His light of love fills your heart, you can truly shine.
For Your Information . . .
CCK is written by Sara J. Bruegel. Many thanks to Eliza Haley for her cartoon. If you have a question, comment, cartoon, or drawing about God’s creation that you would like to share, please write to Sara at: CreationCluesForKids@gmail.com and it may get published in the next issue. Also, you can visit www.CreationClues.com to read a new clue each week or read & print past issues of CCK.
We encourage you to print as many copies as you like for yourself, friends, church, private school, ministry, or other groups, free of charge. All we ask is that you respect the author’s copyright by 1)giving full credit to the author, 2)DO NOT charge for this newsletter or in any way try to make money off of Creation Clues for Kids, and 3) DO NOT change any of the content
This is the April-June 2016 Issue – Vol. 5 No. 2
