It’s Eclipse Day! A reminder of the regularity and precision of God’s creation and the creativity of our mathematicians and astronomers to figure it out. An Eclipse Is Evidence of Things Unseen by Christian astronomer Luke Leisman, published April 4 by Christianity Today is worth the read.
This eclipse location site is as good as any. Click on a city for information:
timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2024-april-8
As I write this a couple of days in advance, Mark and I have scuttled our plan to drive to Fort Worth to see it. Cloudy weather is predicted for much of the eclipse’s path of totality.
If you are near the path of totality, and there are no clouds, do NOT be satisfied with 98% or something like that. There’s totality, and not totality, and there’s a huge difference. This cartoon captures it:
Annie Dillard, whom I have quoted before, also captures the difference in her own unique way:
A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane. Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it. – Annie Dillard, “Total Eclipse,” in Teaching a Stone to Talk
This is totality. We saw the “diamond” in 2017 and made plans then to see this April 8, 2024, eclipse. The center of the path of totality includes our daughter’s lake house in Arkansas…but, alas, clouds are predicted for there too. So this eclipse will happen without our being in totality.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19.1, ESV)
Peter quotes Joel on Pentecost:
“In the last days,” God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2.17 – 21, NIV)
Today is proof of concept.
I hope you can see some of the eclipse. Remember to wear eclipse glasses or watch the shadow through a pinhole. Light diffused through trees sometimes reveals the moon’s shadow on the sun. We saw this phenomenon last October, and the folks from New York we met in New Mexico at the October 2023 eclipse are planning to take in the eclipse from the shore of Lake Ontario. Maybe they’ll send us a picture!
