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Total solar eclipses don’t come around very often. When they do occur, they become major cultural events, and the one in late summer of 2017 was no exception. Many people drove or flew hundreds of miles to be in the path of totality, to gain a vantage point from which they could view the full effect of the eclipse. Many more followed the live coverage on their smartphones or laptops, eager to watch the cosmic drama unfold.
But whether on the ground or online, the sight of the moon blotting out the sun and then turning it into a celestial diamond ring created a moment of transcendent wonder.
For Christians, that sense of wonder was even more acute, a vivid embodiment of the opening words of Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
Those familiar words, however, can roll off the tongue too smoothly, without first rolling about in the mind and imagination. In what way, exactly, does a solar eclipse declare the glory of God? As might be expected, there is more than one.
Since total solar eclipses are so rare and unusual, it’s tempting to think of them as random coincidences of nature. But they’re nothing of the sort. In reality, they follow a complex pattern of physical and mathematical rules that makes it possible to predict their occurrence years in advance, as people have been doing since ancient times. This pattern depends on the sun, moon and earth having exactly the right size, composition, relative distance and motion with respect to each other. If there were any variation in any of these properties, total eclipses as we know them would never occur.
These physical properties of the earth, moon and sun are part of a larger, vastly more complex pattern of cosmic variables, all of which must be precisely as they are for life on earth to exist. The odds of them all falling into place by pure chance is, in a word, astronomical. Taken together, they offer powerful evidence of what scientists call universal fine tuning. Far from being the product of random processes, the cosmos is as its name implies: a created order designed by the unfathomable wisdom of a Creator God. The rare celestial convergence of a total eclipse is a potent reminder of this reality.
Continued below.
www.focusonthefamily.ca
But whether on the ground or online, the sight of the moon blotting out the sun and then turning it into a celestial diamond ring created a moment of transcendent wonder.
For Christians, that sense of wonder was even more acute, a vivid embodiment of the opening words of Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
Those familiar words, however, can roll off the tongue too smoothly, without first rolling about in the mind and imagination. In what way, exactly, does a solar eclipse declare the glory of God? As might be expected, there is more than one.
A finely tuned cosmos
Since total solar eclipses are so rare and unusual, it’s tempting to think of them as random coincidences of nature. But they’re nothing of the sort. In reality, they follow a complex pattern of physical and mathematical rules that makes it possible to predict their occurrence years in advance, as people have been doing since ancient times. This pattern depends on the sun, moon and earth having exactly the right size, composition, relative distance and motion with respect to each other. If there were any variation in any of these properties, total eclipses as we know them would never occur.
These physical properties of the earth, moon and sun are part of a larger, vastly more complex pattern of cosmic variables, all of which must be precisely as they are for life on earth to exist. The odds of them all falling into place by pure chance is, in a word, astronomical. Taken together, they offer powerful evidence of what scientists call universal fine tuning. Far from being the product of random processes, the cosmos is as its name implies: a created order designed by the unfathomable wisdom of a Creator God. The rare celestial convergence of a total eclipse is a potent reminder of this reality.
Mercy over judgment
Continued below.
The solar eclipse: God’s glory veiled and revealed
In what way, exactly, does a solar eclipse declare the glory of God? As might be expected, there is more than one.
