“It was super cool! Slowly the sun disappeared, at first just a small bite out of one side, then gradually the moon overtook the sun, and you felt the world slowly begin to darken.”
You probably guessed it, but that was one of the comments made by someone in North America who observed last week’s Solar Eclipse. From news reports and photographs all over the internet I can attest to the fact that it was a spectacular event and millions of people spoke of great wonder in witnessing it.
There are few celestial events that can capture the popular imagination like that of a total eclipse of the sun. I remember the last one to occur in the UK a few years ago and the excitement it generated – although it was cloudy where I lived! Before the advent of ways to calculate this natural phenomenon you can only imagine the terror induced by the sudden vanishing of the sun without warning.
Because this last event occurred over North America much has been written about how Native American and Indigenous People viewed these natural events. Apparently, during eclipses, many Cherokees go outside and make noise because of their belief that doing so will scare away a giant frog trying to eat the sun. The Ho-Chunk in Wisconsin believe eclipses of both the sun and moon should be respected because it is a time of transformation. The Hopi in Arizona believe an eclipse is a time to pray and for ceremony, such as presenting traditional sacred names.
According to Navajo tradition, when the moon eclipses the sun, the sun undergoes a rebirth. “It is a sacred time where we sit and reflect,” said Sherene Goatson Ing, a member of the Navajo Nation. “Because it’s a moment of rebirth, we just try to show respect.”
Have you ever had one of those eclipse moments in your life? You know, when some large and troubling circumstance stands between you and God, seemingly blocking out all his light, all his goodness, all his love. Even when the moon stands in totality between the earth and the sun we are still aware of the sun’s corona – that outermost part of the sun's atmosphere which is usually hidden by the bright light of the sun's surface.
And it is the same for us – God can never be totally obscured from our lives, he is always present, he is always caring for us, he is always with us.
Remember these words of Psalm 62:5 –
Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.
When life is crowding in around me, when nothing seems to be going my way, when anxieties and worries crowd my horizon I find that the only place to go is to wait quietly before God. And the only prayer to offer is usually:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Amen.
Neil Chappell
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