The Smoker - Part 2

Following my experience on Friday evening, I looked on the Web to find out about the full moon. I discovered that the full moon would actually be Saturday, May 5. And, it would be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year 2012. People would be watching and taking pictures all over the world. Some referred to it as the supermoon.  

A perigee moon, or SuperMoon, on May 5, 2012 near Palm Springs, California. The moon appears especially big and bright during this once-a-year cosmic event as the full moon is at its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. The perigee side of its orbit is about 31,000 miles closer than the opposite, or apogee, side. (David McNew/Getty Images)

I emailed all my family to be sure to look for this biggest and brightest moon of the year.  I walked out to the street last night and admired its appearance.  I looked at photos of it from all over the world on my computer.  Wow!  It's hard to believe I became aware of all this because of a guy smoking a cigarette in a parking lot.

The Smoker

I was walking back to my car with a cartload of groceries.  Next to a car parked nearby, a man stood smoking a cigarette.  I wondered why he was standing outside his car to smoke.  I started thinking about how few people I know that smoke.  I was thankful I'd never been a smoker.

As I loaded my groceries into my car, the smoker spoke to me.  "That's some moon, huh."  I looked up and saw the glowing roundness of the almost-full moon in the eastern sky.  Even from the lighted parking lot, I could see darker and lighter areas on the lunar surface.  It was pretty amazing.

I mumbled a response, got into my car, and drove away struck by what had just happened.  As I was busy with my groceries and thinking about the smoking habit, the smoker had looked into the sky and recognized the beauty of the moon.  And, he had taken the opportunity to point it out to me.

Once again, I had been reminded to raise my eyes heavenward and look at the bigger picture.