Seeing God in a Total Eclipse of the Sun
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| TOTALITY: 1:24 in the afternoon on October 21, 2017 |
"The Earth’s surface provides the best view of solar
eclipses in the Solar System. The Earth’s surface is also the most habitable
place in the Solar System . . . The conditions that make a planet habitable
also make its inhabitants more likely to see solar eclipses."
-privilegedplanet.com
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
-James 1:17
This last week, our family made the drive from Austin to
Kentucky with part of my husband's family to witness the total solar eclipse. My
father-in-law is really into astronomy and was the catalyst for this group road trip.
As the event got closer, I started praying that God would reveal himself to me through this rare event.
Quick disclaimer: The following is my best effort at interpreting what God might be showing me. Please test it for yourself against scripture
and, if you are a Christian, against the Holy Spirit's
leading in your own heart.
My purpose on this blog is to allow God to draw us
all closer to Him through my words. Truth is more important to me than always
being right about truth.
The Moon in the Bible
Already in my faith journey, God has used the sun and the
moon to speak to me, to reveal himself. He taught me years ago through Psalm
89:37 that the moon is "the faithful witness in the sky". This reminds me of
the way that John the Baptist is described in John 1:7-8:
"He came as a
witness to testify concerning that light [Jesus], so that through him all might
believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the
light."
If you think about the moon, it is not able to produce any
light on its own, although it appears to glow. It glows because its dead, rocky
surface can "witness" and reflect the light of a star. I love how the
Bible describes the moon as the faithful witness. Calling the moon faithful didn't make
sense to me at first, because I thought about how the moon is not always even
visible. It regularly wanes and even disappears completely, in much the same
way as our faithfulness in following Jesus wanes and goes incognito at times.
But, somehow, our gracious daddy God sees this cycle of
darkening and lightening as faithfulness.
The Sun in the Bible
In contrast to the moon, the Bible seems to compare the sun to Jesus himself:
"For the Lord God is a sun and shield . . . "
-Psalm 84:11
In John's vision of Christ in Revelation 1:16, he saw that
Jesus's face "was like the sun shining in all its brilliance."
In Revelation 22, the concluding chapter of the Bible, verse
16 reads, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the
churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning
Star.”
Psalm 89:35-36 says,
"Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—
and I will not lie
to David—
that his line will continue forever
and his throne
endure before me like the sun . . . "
So, here, the throne of David is compared to the sun. I believe this passage points to Jesus because he is the
heir to David's throne, and it is because of him that David's line continues
forever. As we saw, Jesus himself, in Revelation 22, said that he was the
"Root and the Offspring of David".
"He will be great and will be called the Son of the
Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David . . .
"
-Luke 1:32
So, going into the eclipse trip, I started wondering: Why
would God have set up the universe in such a way that the moon, which
represents merely a witness to Jesus, at certain times blocks out the
sun, which represents Jesus? That seemed to me counterintuitive to God's purposes,
how he is always looking to show us more of Jesus and his supremacy.
I was talking to a friend today about our trip to see the
total eclipse in Kentucky. She told me about an important conversation she'd
had with a friend during the partial eclipse in Austin. In that conversation,
she'd suddenly faced her past in a new way. She said that she thought God might be bringing new
levels of healing to her heart.
As I was listening to
her story, I kept thinking about the lyrics to one of the few songs I've ever heard
that contains the word "eclipse". It is a song originally written by John
Mark McMillan called "How He Loves". These are the lyrics that were
swimming through my head during my friend's story:
"When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory.
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me."*
I started sharing these lyrics with my friend, and as I
talked with her, I realized that God seemed to be answering my prayer for more understanding of what he wanted to show me through the eclipse.
First off, during the eclipse, when the moon completely covered the sun (totality), we were able to take off our solar glasses and look directly at the sun with our naked eyes. This makes me think of 2
Peter 1:16:
"For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we
told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were
eyewitnesses of his majesty." (emphasis mine)
I also noticed that, although the moon was blocking the sun, the glory of the sun was not
hindered at all. On the contrary, I was able to see aspects of the sun that I
had never before seen in my life. The sun's rays were shooting out like huge white flames of fire
to the right and the left of the black circle of the moon.
It hit me as I was talking to my friend that
those rays around the sun are called the "corona". And then I
suddenly remembered that "corona" is translated "crown"! I
was getting really excited now.
When searching for the word "crown" in the Bible,
I came upon a list of verses, which included the following that talk about
Jesus:
"'Here [in Zion] I will make a horn [kingly symbol]
grow for David
and set up a lamp
for my anointed one.
I will clothe his enemies with shame,
but his head will
be adorned with a radiant crown.'"
-Psalm 132:17-18 (emphasis mine)
"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a
white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges
and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many
crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is
dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. "
Revelation 19:11-13 (emphasis mine)
Jesus is the rightful king.
Not only is Jesus the king, but he is also the bridegroom in
the wedding that concludes the epic story of the Bible. The sun, like Jesus, is
referred to as a bridegroom in Psalm 19:4b-5:
"In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a
bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion
rejoicing to run his course."
When I searched for the word "crown" in the Bible,
I was surprised to find that it not only talks about Jesus wearing a crown, but
his people as well. He crowns us.
"Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all
his benefits . . .
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with
love and compassion . . . "
-Psalm 103: 2, 4 (emphasis mine)
Like "a bridegroom", God
crowns us with love and compassion. And, as the "champion rejoicing to run
his course", he also crowns us with glory, honor, and victory:
"When I consider your heavens,
the work of your
fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set
in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that
you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them
with glory and honor."
-Psalm 8:3-5 (emphasis mine)
"Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
let the people of
Zion be glad in their King . . .
For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he crowns the
humble with victory."
-Psalm 149:2,4 (emphasis mine)
The Great American Eclipse of 2017
Let me take you to the events of the beginning of this week.
The day before the eclipse, a group of us went to see an
"Eclipse 101" talk given by Philip Groce, president of Helping
Planetariums Succeed, Inc. Among many other interesting points he made, he said
that eventually, humans will not be able to see total solar eclipses the way
we can today. The reason is that the moon is gradually moving farther and
farther away from the earth, making it appear smaller in the sky. This means that, from the vantage point of Earth, the moon will at some point no longer appear to completely cover the sun.
This brought to mind John 3:29, where John the Baptist says
about Jesus,
"The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who
attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he
hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must
become greater; I must become less."
Monday mid-day, we stood on a hilltop by the beach at Lake Barkley State Resort Park. As the eclipse got closer, the environment around me started to fade
and get dimmer. It was easier to look around without squinting. Everything looked slightly
gold-tinted and washed-out, like I was looking at a 1970s photograph.
My husband had downloaded an eclipse timer app to his
iPhone. A few minutes before totality, the voice on his app announced that we
might now be able to see shadow bands. From watching this video ahead of time, we had learned that
shadow bands are a visual effect that look like snakes moving on the ground, so much so that children
have apparently tried to reach out and grab them.
My brother-in-law had put a white sheet on the ground. Sure
enough, as we looked at the white sheet, we started to see what looked like
wavy lines undulating on its surface.
Thinking about how shadow bands have been described as
snakes, and looking at the eclipse in terms of the Biblical narrative, I can't
help but think of the way that Satan came in the form of a snake back in the
Garden of Eden. I don't know how far that analogy can be carried, but it is
interesting to mention.
As the moon steadily made its way closer and
closer to the far edge of the sun, and the crescent sun became a smaller and
smaller sliver of light, suddenly, totality happened. For the first time in my
life, I could take off my sunglasses--in this case, solar glasses--and look
directly at the sun in the sky.
I didn't expect the total eclipse to look so
much like a computer-generated image: a seemingly perfect black circle ringed
by bursting white flames of light. It was hard to believe that what I was
looking at was real.
I scanned the horizon and saw that there appeared to be a 360-degree sunset. My brain wasn't sure what to make of the scene. I was on the verge of tears. Elation: I think that's what I was feeling.
At the end of totality was the brilliant, bright flash of light that occurs as the sun starts to reappear. They call it the diamond ring effect, and what I could see of it was gorgeous. I was worried that I would be blinded by its brilliance, and hurried to get solar glasses back on my face and my son's face.
The presenter the day before had said that he has seen people weep during total solar eclipses. His reaction to his first one was to suddenly
realize just how out of control he is in life. He stood there in awe, knowing
that there was nothing he could do to stop the events that were in motion.
On Monday, we shared our suspense and then sheer awe with
the hundreds of people around us by the lake. This event was different from
almost any large group public event I have been to, because we had all come to
witness something that was both inevitable and beyond human capacity. I didn't
see one jaded person in the group, one person who seemed to be thinking, "Oh, been
there, done that."
From the group of super-excited and vocal Puerto Rican
science students who had flown to the States with their teacher, to the theatre
people who I had joined earlier for some sidewalk yoga and snacks, to the guy
who captured a photo of a couple kissing during the eclipse, this event seemed
to be significant for everyone there. Together, as a group of fellow humans, we gazed up into the heavens and cheered from the ground.
And I can see the champion and bridegroom Jesus, lit up from
the inside, rising up in the morning, barely able to contain himself for what
he knows is about to happen, running his course to the middle of the sky,
waiting in expectation for his "faithful" dirt-made witness of a
church to stand before him and be crowned with the radiant light of his fiery
love. And then, at the apex of this crowning ceremony, he gives his bride a diamond wedding ring.
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim
the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night
they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard
from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the
ends of the world."
-Psalm 19:1-4
*source: www.azlyrics.com
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