What the Solar Eclipse Reminds Us
Did you watch the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8th? Wasn’t it amazing! My son and I had the opportunity to view full totality from Granbury, Texas while visiting family. As I ponder the incredible sight, three things come to mind.
First, the glorious eclipse demonstrates our God is a God of order. We can see His order every single day, but on April 8th, the Lord made His order abundantly obvious. In fact, His celestial creation is so perfectly ordered that astronomers can predict solar eclipses up to 1,000 years in advance.
Before we go further, let’s do a quick astronomic review to better understand the Lord’s orderly design of the universe and space.
The Moon orbits Earth; Earth orbits the Sun. Due to the Moon’s tilt (5 degrees) and the Earth’s tilt (23 degrees, which creates seasons), a total solar eclipse is rare. Notwithstanding their individual tilts, the Sun, Moon, and Earth all must be on the exact orbital plane and perfectly lined up for a total solar eclipse to occur.
During a solar eclipse, the Moon appears the same size as the Sun. This happens, because although the Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon, the Moon is 400 times closer to Earth — giving the appearance they are of equal size.
The solar system has more than 293 moons, but our Moon represents the only one perfect in size and distance to both create a total solar eclipse and show the corona (the Sun’s hot outer atmosphere viewed only during an eclipse). It’s all due to the unique and orderly geometry of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
Afterwards, articles described the event as a “coincidence.” We know differently. Even Gene Weingarten, a former Washington Post writer, once admitted: “I’m a devout atheist but can’t explain why the Moon is exactly the right size and gets positioned so precisely between Earth and Sun that total solar eclipses are perfect. It bothers me.”
Second, much occurs in space we do not see. Beyond the magnificent solar eclipse, God gifted us with an extremely rare phenomenon: solar prominence which appeared as red dots on the corona. Anchored to the Sun, the erupting plasma of electrically charged hydrogen and helium extended hundreds of thousands of miles into space.
Under magnification, the red dots, or solar prominence, look like “fire loops.” With the sun 93 million miles away, a telescope is normally required to see solar prominence; on Monday, people watched the extraordinary event with the naked eye. Curiously, what we viewed took 8 minutes for the light to travel from the Sun to Earth, which meant prior to the eclipse beginning.
Third, the God who “created the Heavens and the Earth” is also our Heavenly Father. We can call upon Almighty God and pray to Him as “Abba, Father,” because through the sacrifice of His Son, we receive “adoption” as “children of God.” Let that sink in for a moment — the God of the universe is equally our Heavenly Father.
The Lord set Monday’s eclipse in motion a long time ago, but as our Heavenly Father, He’s just as involved with the details of our lives. He loves you. He desires relationship with you. He wants to hear your worries and your questions. He’s never too busy for you, nor is any issue too small for Him, as we see in Psalm 139:
You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. Search me, God, and know my heart . . . know my anxious thoughts . . . and lead me in the way everlasting.
On April 8, the Lord parted the celestial curtain allowing us to glimpse His spectacular creation. The wonderment provided testimony to more than 40 million people who viewed it. We pray their hearts and minds are open to the “King of the ages, immortal, invisible” and “God only wise.”
Above all, God reminded us He is a God of order and that much happens beyond what we can see or understand. Yet, as our Heavenly Father, He is concerned with every detail of our lives. He loves us. He knows us. And, He wants us to know Him as well.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.
Psalm 19:1