The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1
I just had my second experience of a total solar eclipse. I remember my first experience in 1979, but this was even more spectacular to my soul. The internet is flooded with eclipse experiences, meanings and overall hype. So, I, too, must add my perspective.
Around 9:00 am, I nearly jumped out of my shoes when my phone started blasting an emergency notification. Thinking the world was about to end, I grabbed my phone and read something about not stopping my car in dry grass to watch the eclipse because of the extreme fire danger. My heart finally resumed normal beating again only to be shocked a while later with a second message to not look directly into the sun. Then the third and final emergency blasts had something to do with rock climbing and limited emergency response teams. I felt fairly safe in the damp grass of my backyard. What are people doing out there??
I set up my camera and tripod and sat on the patio waiting for the moment of totality. The sky gradually shifted from bright blue to deeper blue and finally darkened. With my eclipse glasses straddling my nose to protect my eyes, I watched the disk of the sun gradually disappear in thinner and thinner crescents. Then the moment of totality arrived and everything went dark. My heart leaped as I took off my eclipse glasses and gazed at the beauty glowing above me. The corona— the wispy atmosphere of the sun – created a halo of glory around the sun. I heard whoops and cheers in the neighborhood and a fire cracker went off. I was overcome with beauty and all I could exclaim was “Wow, Wow!!” Not too original, but nothing more could be uttered as my heart exploded with wonder and my eyes teared up in awe.
8/21/2017 10:18 am Lebanon, Oregon
Total solar eclipse, Mercury below and to the left.
I was cast into the great shadow of the moon and enveloped in darkness. My solar lights and a nearby street light came on automatically, and I began snapping pictures. My exhilaration crescendoed as a diamond ring appeared for a few fleeting moments. The first bead of sunlight shone through the rugged lunar terrain of craters, mountains and valleys creating a shining diamond set in a bright ring of the lunar silhouette.
8/21/2017 about 10:22 am, Lebanon, Oregon
Diamond Ring
God set the sun, moon and earth at the precise distances according to their extremely different sizes to create this unique phenomena. Although the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, it is also about 400 times closer to the Earth. The distances and sizes and moment of perfect alignment create a total solar eclipse where the moon appears the same size of the sun blocking it but leaving the beauty of the corona. Then a few minutes later, He gives us a diamond ring. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Pondering this whole phenomena this morning, God reminded me of the moment He covered Moses with His hand to block His blinding glory and Moses saw His passing corona.
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Exodus 33:18-23; 34:6-7