I may have originally downplayed it, but once the eclipse
happened on August 21st I think I realized how significant the event
really was. It got cooler. It became nighttime for a few minutes in the middle
of the day. Crickets chirped and animals responded and then there was the
corona – there are no words! We were looking straight into the direction of the
sun for two and a half minutes. I have never seen anything like that before.
What’s more is that it happened in my backyard while my daughter was
celebrating her 10th birthday. It was a day to remember forever.
Here are 4 things that keep going through my head about “The
Great American Eclipse”:
1. “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4).
I don’t know about you, but I felt very insignificant and small as I considered
my place in the universe. The expanses of the heavens lie beyond human understanding
and we cannot reach or see their beginning and end. And yet God spoke them into
existence with the words of His mouth in a mere moment. I am nothing. The same God who made the cosmos and all that exists in the material universe
took on flesh and came to earth and died for me.
2. “All flesh is grass, and all of its loveliness is like
the flower of the field” (Isaiah 40:6). Our earthly life is temporary. While
the ages roll on generations come and go from the earth. I read that 1918 was
the last time such an eclipse travelled across the continental United States.
The adults that witnessed that have now passed on to eternity. Supposedly it has
been hundreds of years since the last time that eclipse happened in my
backyard. It was no backyard then, but was seen only by the forest and any
animal or bird that happened to notice. While our life blooms like a flower and
then fades away, God’s creative work continues.
3. “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to
dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). For a moment all human beings
were equal. The color of our skin did not matter. Our political views, social
status, cultural background – all the things that separate us – for a few
minutes they ceased to exist. I was not only mindful of the equality of
humanity in the world today, but the equality of humanity for all time. I thought about how thousands of years ago
there were people living on this planet who saw the same moon that I saw block
the same sun. I felt closer to mankind for a moment. I felt the way I am supposed
to feel about humanity all the time.
4. “Look to the heavens and see; And behold the clouds—They
are higher than you” (Job 35:5). This earth is fraught with problems. We are
preoccupied with them. Life is a series of joys and exaltations, struggles and
disappointments. There are good times and bad times and we are in a rat race
and we have forgotten the things that really matter. We don’t look up enough.
We do not appreciate the stars. We have a God that is far above the clouds, whose
ways and thoughts are higher than ours. There is strength in looking upward.
There is peace in knowing that beyond the sun and moon there is a God who is incontrol, who loves us and who has saved us. We need to look up more. If we want
to see awe and majesty and divine splendor we don’t have to wait for an eclipse
day to do that. We can see it every day.
A Day is coming when we will all look up. But on that Day,
nothing will block out the Son. Maranatha!
