Weekly Message comes to you a day early because I don’t want to miss our part of the solar eclipse as it comes to the United States tomorrow. In Colorado we’re not in the middle of the path, so local newscasters tell us all roads north will be clogged as the 565,000 population of Wyoming may double for a day or two. It makes sense for most of us in Colorado to watch it on television like most of you will.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes perfectly between the sun and earth so that its shadow blocks all the direct sunlight except its corona. The sun and moon must be in correct alignment, and the moon’s elliptical orbit must bring it to an exact distance from the earth. Without all these and other divinely ordained alignments, there could be no total eclipse.
What we will look up and see Monday, whether all or in part, will not occur again here for decades. America has had many total eclipses, but not one so broadly stretching across our continent. Total eclipses like this one are really quite rare.
As I see it in person or on television, I will be thinking of the psalmist who wrote, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens… When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:1, 3-4)
God has made humans the highest of His creation, and if we are fortunate Monday’s event may even momentarily take our minds off national and international intrigue. At least for a day or so, journalists and politicians must relinquish their bully pulpits so the rest of us can look up and see something divinely ordained, three celestial orbs all in agreement. That alone should be proof of God’s divine handiwork.
We humans work so very hard to master knowledge in our quest to make the amazing ordinary. Yes, mankind has advanced far, but this kind of event, designed by God and freely seen by so many millions, should tell us we still have a long way to go.
But whatever we may know, God’s entering human history through Jesus is the event that defines everything else. In His Son Jesus, God offers us a look at His power, beauty and mercy. Most incredibly, He offers us place in His family for eternity. Nothing tops that.
Given our knowledge and faith in Jesus by the Holy Spirit, even the most intelligent of us should stand in awe as we see this eclipse. We live on a delicately balanced world in its time and place in the universe. We are given a place by God where we are able to “live, move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Because of that, we should join the Psalmist saying,
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes perfectly between the sun and earth so that its shadow blocks all the direct sunlight except its corona. The sun and moon must be in correct alignment, and the moon’s elliptical orbit must bring it to an exact distance from the earth. Without all these and other divinely ordained alignments, there could be no total eclipse.
What we will look up and see Monday, whether all or in part, will not occur again here for decades. America has had many total eclipses, but not one so broadly stretching across our continent. Total eclipses like this one are really quite rare.
As I see it in person or on television, I will be thinking of the psalmist who wrote, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens… When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:1, 3-4)
God has made humans the highest of His creation, and if we are fortunate Monday’s event may even momentarily take our minds off national and international intrigue. At least for a day or so, journalists and politicians must relinquish their bully pulpits so the rest of us can look up and see something divinely ordained, three celestial orbs all in agreement. That alone should be proof of God’s divine handiwork.
We humans work so very hard to master knowledge in our quest to make the amazing ordinary. Yes, mankind has advanced far, but this kind of event, designed by God and freely seen by so many millions, should tell us we still have a long way to go.
But whatever we may know, God’s entering human history through Jesus is the event that defines everything else. In His Son Jesus, God offers us a look at His power, beauty and mercy. Most incredibly, He offers us place in His family for eternity. Nothing tops that.
Given our knowledge and faith in Jesus by the Holy Spirit, even the most intelligent of us should stand in awe as we see this eclipse. We live on a delicately balanced world in its time and place in the universe. We are given a place by God where we are able to “live, move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Because of that, we should join the Psalmist saying,
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”
Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com
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