Eclipse 2017

On Monday, August 21st, an astronomical event will overshadow the normal events of a Monday. This country will witness Eclipse 2017. It is expected that millions of people will spend four-hour clumps of time looking up throughout the day, taking pictures, scrambling for properly-rated eclipse glasses, or monitoring its path via an electronic app. But how many of us will realize that we are witnessing the movement of our Divine Creator? How many will give thanks for this small break in the flood of chaotic political upheaval and fear that has riddled our country in the recent past?

“Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10 will be alive and tangible, but how many of us will make that connection? What a gift is being offered to us on August 21st that we will be witness to the divine movement of a creator so great that millions will interrupt their daily routines, schools will change their schedules, small rural areas will be bursting with new faces and new energy. How many will be able to remove the blinders from their hearts, lift their faces to the heavens and give God the glory?

The world has become one nation riddled by fear. Fear of loss, fear of annihilation, fear of a perceived loss of control, fear of what others think, fear of “failure”, fear of lost respect, fear of what we think should be ours based on skin color, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social or economic status, the list goes on.

How ironic is it that in ancient times solar eclipses were thought to be periods of satanic power, eclipses were events to hide from in fear of the unknown; yet Eclipse 2017 will be the event that gives us the freedom and the cause to look to the heavens. As we gaze upon the heavens, how many will see the movement of the Divine and give thanks for the words of the Psalmist, “Be still and know that I am God”?