August 22
For those who may not have realized it, yesterday (in many parts of the country) there was a total solar eclipse. Here in the midwest, at 1:16 pm, I witnessed something I had never ever seen before. The moon’s orbit was in direct line with the sun’s, and the two became like one – right before my eyes.
Given this rare occurrence, I thought I would share some “Eclipse” related thoughts…
1) First, I never realized how small the sun really is (okay, in actuality, it is about 110 times the size of the earth, but work with me here). Though it is huge, yet from our vantage point, it is just a small sphere in the sky. We never really get a good look at the size of the sun (with the naked eye – at least, without losing our retinas). It’s just surprising, but because of its awesome power, the sun seems so much bigger…
2) In fact, from here, the sun is small enough that the moon can fit exactly in front of it. I find that amazing. I find it hard to believe that this fact is by accident. It’s like Someone was behind this whole thing, and arranged for these types of celestial events to surprise us and amaze us.
3) We had so much prior notification of this event, we all had time to prepare for it. Take off work, if you want. Keep your kids at home from school. Make plans to get together with folks and go somewhere special to watch the event. This makes me ponder what it might have been like if there were no means of notification at all (like in the early days, before all this science and social media). What if you were just going about your day and a total eclipse happened? What would you do? What would you think? I tend to think it might have created way more of a doomsday overtone than what we experienced today.
4) At the moment of total eclipse, darkness descends in a hurry! One moment you are standing in daylight – and the next, it was like the first light of dawn – or the last fading light of day (take your pick). For that 100 seconds (or so), the horizon, for 360 degrees around me, was like a sunrise/sunset. Crickets started chirping. The neighborhood owls started “hooting.” Deer came out of the woods and wandered around (One was reportedly heard to say: “Dang, that was a short night!”) It was strange. It was wonderful.
5) At that moment of total eclipse, I could hear people cheering (from all across town). I didn’t expect that. But, maybe I should have. We cheer home runs. We cheer touchdowns and game-winning shots. Why not cheer the culmination of what we were anticipating? Something that most of us have never seen before.
6) You needed protective glasses to view the various stages of the eclipse (to prevent damaging your eyes), but when the total eclipse happened you could not see it IF you were wearing those glasses. What was protection, became an obstruction. And the whole point was to actually SEE the total eclipse (not the pre and post events). I know of people who were so fearful of damaging their eyes that they kept their glasses on, and completely missed the main event. I’m sure there is a lesson, here, about the wisdom of safety… and the detriment of fear.
Lastly, one of the things often said was: “how amazingly bright the light of the sun really is.” Even when there was the tiniest sliver of sunlight, you could not look into that light. But once the light was completely covered, your eyes could easily, and painlessly, focus upon the source of that light.
But the darkness could not completely vanquish the light. You knew the light was still there (in the beauty of the sun’s corona – in the sparkling colors that danced around the dark form of the moon).
And the light could not be contained forever. In only a few short seconds, the sliver of light reappeared and you were engulfed in the light’s power, once again.
I am reminded that we are often faced with times where it seems this world is in constant “eclipse” mode. Darkness descends and threatens to overwhelm us and blot us out. It’s like we are powerless to stop darkness from descending.
But the Light will always win the day. Light always dispels darkness. Darkness is, in fact, powerless against the Light.
As Christians, we need to be reminded that our God IS the Light. He seeks to shine in this world, even when the masses rise up to try and block Him out completely. He is uncontainable. Overpowering. Luminescent. Brilliant.
And He seeks to shine His Light on, in, and through His people.
Prayer Focus: God, let Your Light of Your relentless love shine through me… and make me mindful that everywhere I go, I am Your light, dispelling darkness.
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