Why it’s called Poacher’s Moon
What a bright full moon changes in the woods, for poachers and for the wardens after them.
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills…” — Psalm 121:1
Most of what’s done wrong in the woods is done in the dark. A man shining deer off a back road at two in the morning is counting on nobody seeing him.
A poacher’s moon is the exception. It’s a full moon bright enough to light up a field, and it makes the illegal taking of game easier, because the animals are out and visible. But the same light works the other way. It also makes the men and women whose job is to stop it more effective. The moon doesn’t take sides. It shows everything.
That’s the heart of the title. Light will always shine on what is done in the dark. “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known” (Luke 12:2).
Growing up under it
When I was growing up in the woods, a full moon was an advantage. It meant we could go out and explore, and see how the woods lived after dark.
Nights in the woods are a beautiful, complicated thing. The animals do what they do, and together they make a kind of symphony in the night air. At the same time, your imagination runs wild, because your senses can’t take in everything around you in the low light. A moonlit night can feel peaceful at first, and then your mind turns it into something dark and frightening, and all the while you’re waiting on the light of dawn.
Waiting on the light
Those nights remind me of being in a dark place in life: the constant dread, the worry, the restlessness. Maybe you know that place.
God offers a way out of it. He provided His Son, Jesus, as the perfect and unblemished sacrifice for our sins, once and for all. He is the light that shines on our path, and unlike the moon, He doesn’t wax and wane.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. My help comes from the One who made them.