When God’s Love is Eclipsed
After seeing so many social media posts on the April 8th solar eclipse and imaging everyone writing about it, I hesitated to share my story. Yet the beauty of a very personal lesson refused to be silenced. More than a story of when God’s Love is eclipsed in our lives, it is the story of a Love which would not let me go and a God who graciously answered two specific prayers in one day.
Of all creation, the mysteries and magnificence of the heavens most declare God’s glory and love in an unmistakable way.
Ever a lover of astronomy since childhood days of following the moon’s phases and naming the constellations in the night skies, I have seen many a lunar eclipse; even rising in the middle of the night in the dead of winter afraid of missing one!
But a total solar eclipse is rare.
While living in Albania for the 1997 total solar eclipse, we had no proper viewing equipment and could only view it through the cardboard box method of projecting the images on the sidewalk.
Partial at best, the August 2024 solar eclipse where I lived was not viewable due to weather! Now, at sixty-five years of age with the next predicted total solar eclipse slated for 2044, I desperately wanted to view one with my own eyes in my lifetime.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them, Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
As the April 8th solar eclipse loomed, not a single pair of approved eclipse viewing glasses was in stock anywhere, except of course in large quantities. Who knew you needed to plan months in advance for viewing a solar eclipse?
Closing my eyes the night before the eclipse, I prayed for God to make a way for me to view it and continued that same prayer the morning of the eclipse. Having peace God heard my prayer, I went about my day.
But as the time for the eclipse to begin drew near, no viewing opportunities became apparent. Still believing in my heart God would make a way for me to view it, I determined even if I could not see it, I would be content outside in quiet worship.
Grabbing my dog Shalom’s leash, we headed out for our walk through the neighborhood at the exact time the eclipse began. Strangely, we made it all but through our entire route without seeing a single person outside, until the last leg of our usual journey.
Meeting an elderly couple I have never seen before viewing the eclipse, they greeted us and wondered why I had no viewing glasses. Sharing my inability to obtain a pair, the kind gentleman handed me his.
Thanking him for a quick peek, he helped me put them on and directed me to the best spot to view it. Though it only just began, when I saw it for the first time ever, it took my breath away and my eyes filled with tears, as I stood there in awe.
Handing back the glasses with gratitude for God answering my prayer in allowing me to view this small part, the man placed them back in my hand and said to keep them and enjoy the rest of the eclipse.
Full of thanksgiving for this stranger’s kindness, I cried the rest of the way home at God’s amazing love for me in answering my prayer in such a fantastic way.
But that was only the first prayer I prayed on the morning of the solar eclipse.
The second prayer I prayed was for God to show me something about Himself that pertained to me in a very personal way, whether I saw the eclipse with my own eyes or not.
Though the weather predicted was for brilliantly clear skies, as the eclipse neared totality, clouds gathered out of nowhere.
Viewing the eclipse standing on my front lawn through the glasses, the clouds appeared as dark menacing hands swirling around the sun as it became dark.
Everything around me fell into a holy hush, and I felt a cold, foreboding.
Continuing to listen, asking God to reveal a special lesson for me, many thoughts ran through my mind, but felt empty or lacking in some way.
What possible meaning could be drawn from the moon eclipsing the sun’s light to the earth?
In a single moment God spoke in the hush as it seemed all the world around me stood in awe at the rare sight of the totality of the eclipse.
At times, God’s love is eclipsed by the powers of darkness.
The words stole my breath, because for a very long time I have not felt God’s love for me amid the suffering and dark night of the soul experienced in my life.
The symbolism of the Sun representing the Light of God’s Love, and the moon, we always associate with night. The swirling dark clouds added the emphasis of dark powers.
When this happens, we need someone else to come along side to help us see the Light of His Love again.
Just like the example of the elderly man giving me his eclipse glasses to help me see the sun.
What wrecked me at that point was, God further said, He knew how I had been that person for so many others, even in my own pain, when I thought He did not see.
Finally reminding me even in the totality of the solar eclipse, the sun’s light is never completely blocked, for the corona shines even brighter all around it.
In the same way, the powers of darkness can never fully eclipse the Light of God’s Love in my life.
For His is a Love that will not let me go.
Remembering the hymn by that name, listening to the words completely sealed the poignant, personal lesson God spoke into my life through the solar eclipse.
While a deep desire to view a rare total solar eclipse may seem silly to many people, and further believing the God of the Universe would speak to me in a very personal way through it, rather outlandish, God answered both those prayers as I stood on my front lawn in cardboard eclipse glasses on April 8, 2024.
When God’s love is eclipsed in your life, never forget though you may not see or feel it, His Love will never let go.
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