A friend who lives in Calico Rock, Arkansas wrote me, “Calico Rock has been preparing for the TOTAL ECLIPSE on April 8, 2024—we are in the direct totality path. Since all of this ‘just happened,’ we are hoping it does not get stuck and freeze us all to death!”
I looked it up, and the Calico Rock tourist department must be going crazy. It seems like the Ozark Total Eclipse 2024 is everywhere online.
This brings back memories of when Nanci and I took our two of our grandsons, Jake and Ty, down to Keizer, Oregon, near Salem, which was directly on the path of totality in August 2017. It was a great experience. We talked about how ancient people must’ve responded with no ability to predict or anticipate such an event. They would say, “This is the hand of God,” and they would be exactly right.
I wrote this on August 21, 2017:
Nanci is driving as we head home to Portland from our visit to Salem, Oregon for the total eclipse, with two of our grandsons. The 13 year old said, “Pops, that was the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.” Love that he said it of something that’s not a movie or video game or even a concert. :) A scientist on TV said of the fact that the sun is 400x larger and also 400x further away than moon, which makes a perfect total eclipse, “It’s a cosmic accident, an incredible coincidence.” So we discussed the Creator's perfect design, and His plan to show people His glory. Hearing the grandsons gasp and say wow at totality, seeing the sun’s corona burst forth, and seeing Jupiter shine brightly above us at 10:20 am., was priceless! We shared Scripture and prayed. Well worth this drive home taking three hours to go 60 miles. :) More bonding time. “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship” (Psalm 19:1, NLT).
Just because we now have explanations and the ability to predict such phenomena, we somehow overlook many things, including that the only way eclipses work so perfectly is because of the same relative size due to the distance involved. Talk about intelligent design. As an online explanation puts it, it’s another one of those countless “cosmic coincidences” that gave you the impression there really is someone who designed it that way:
“Both the moon and Sun are about 100 times farther from Earth than the sizes of their respective diameters. This means that the moon will block out, or ‘eclipse,’ anything behind it that has the same 1-to-100 size/distance ratio. This is the ‘cosmic coincidence’ that makes solar eclipses possible.”
Like the Tower Bridge in London could give you the impression that someone actually designed and built it–if you can imagine that! 😂 Or how looking at a Rembrandt makes you think, “Wait, I wonder if somebody actually painted that?” (Nah, everybody in the modern world says it’s the random product of time plus chance plus nothing, so who am I to doubt that?)
Despite its current flaws, the world’s beauty and intricacy testify to a Creator who designed it with order and purpose. Aren’t you glad to know Him, the one who “holds all creation together” (Colossians 1:17)?
“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You, who shows lovingkindness to thousands... O great and mighty God. Yahweh of hosts is His name, great in counsel and abundant in deeds” (Jeremiah 32:17–19, LSB)
Photo: Unsplash
