Awe & Wonder

I'm not sure if you've heard, but an eclipse is happening today. Just kidding. I'm sure you know about it! We are actually on the road, trying to find a location with as little cloud coverage as possible to observe it.  

My husband is enamored with the sky - the Milky Way, comets, shooting stars, solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, planets, solar flares - on and on the list goes.  Occasionally, we all load up and take a trip to observe certain celestial experiences.  

In 2017, we went to Missouri to watch our first total eclipse. The day was drizzly, and the clouds were thick. We had opted to pay for parking in a field with thousands of other people. It was a fun experience, but it was also a little disappointing.  

Since we parked in the field, there was no way for us to leave until the event was over. There was no way to chase a clear sky. My husband had been hoping to take pictures and experience all of the stages leading up to and following the eclipse. The weather didn't really work in his favor that day.  

Even though the weather wasn't perfect, I still vividly remember that day and the crowd's elation when the moment of totality happened. It was so cloudy that we couldn't see all of the amazing light rings, but we still experienced the shift happening in nature around us.  

We noticed the temperature drop. We heard the animals start making different sounds. We experienced the awe in a crowd of thousands as the moon covered the sun and darkness fell. We experienced the light shining at the horizon and the cheers that erupted from those gathered.  

It was breathtaking. I cried. 

Can you imagine being the first group of people to witness an eclipse? I think it was probably terrifying. Wondering what was happening to the light and why there was sudden darkness in the middle of the day - not knowing if the light would shine again.  

And then I imagine the awe when the darkness kept moving, however many minutes later, and the light began to shine again. I wonder if the people were filled with jubilation. I think they must have been.

We have a pretty good grasp of the science now - what is happening and why. But regardless of how much we know, there remains a deep sense of awe and wonder when we consider these celestial bodies and marvel at how God has ordered all of creation.  

I'm not sure where our adventure will take us today. The weather has changed our plans repeatedly over the last week, but I'm certain that wherever we end up, we will marvel at the miracle of creation.  

Take a minute and read these verses today as you meditate on God's great love for us.

Job 38:1-38 (CSB)

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:

Who is this who obscures my counsel 
with ignorant words? 
Get ready to answer me like a man; 
when I question you, you will inform me. 

Where were you when I 
established the earth? 
Tell me, if you have understanding. 

Who fixed its dimensions?
Certainly you know! 
Who stretched a measuring line across it? 

What supports its foundations? 
Or who laid its cornerstone 
while the morning stars sang together 
and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 

Who enclosed the sea behind doors 
when it burst from the womb, 
when I made the clouds its garment 
and total darkness its blanket, 
when I determined its boundaries 
and put its bars and doors in place, 
when I declared, "You may come this far, 
but no farther; your proud waves stop here"? 

Have you ever in your life 
commanded the morning 
or assigned the dawn its place, 
so it may seize the edges of the earth 
and shake the wicked out of it? 

The earth is changed as clay is by a seal; 
its hills stand out like the folds of a garment. 
Light is withheld from the wicked, 
and the arm raised in violence is broken. 

Have you traveled to the sources of the sea 
or walked in the depths of the oceans? 
Have the gates of death been revealed to you? 
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness? 
Have you comprehended the extent of the earth? 
Tell me, if you know all this. 

Where is the road to the home of light? 
Do you know where darkness lives, 
so you can lead it back to its border? 
Are you familiar with the paths to its home? 
Don't you know? 
You were already born; 
you have lived so long! 

Have you entered the place 
where the snow is stored? 
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail, 
which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, 
for the day of warfare and battle? 
What road leads to the place 
where light is dispersed? 
Where is the source of the east wind 
that spreads across the earth? 

Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain 
or clears the way for lightning, 
to bring rain on an uninhabited land, 
on a desert with no human life, 
to satisfy the parched wasteland 
and cause the grass to sprout? 
Does the rain have a father? 
Who fathered the drops of dew? 
Whose womb did the ice come from? 
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven 
when water becomes as hard as stone, 
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen? 

Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades 
or loosen the belt of Orion? 
Can you bring out the constellations 
in their season and lead 
the Bear and her cubs?

Do you know the laws of heaven? 
Can you impose its authority on earth? 
Can you command the clouds 
so that a flood of water covers you? 
Can you send out lightning bolts, 
and they go? Do they report to you, 
"Here we are"? 

Who put wisdom in the heart 
or gave the mind understanding? 
Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? 
Or who can tilt the water jars 
of heaven when the dust hardens 
like cast metal and the clods of 
dirt stick together?

These words in Job always invite me to pause and marvel at the way God holds all things together - now and always. May we be reminded that awe and wonder surround us in every season, and may we embrace the mystery beyond our comprehension.  
 

~  Melissa