Anxious Thoughts from an Old Soul

Less than twelve hours until I ride to see the eclipse and I'm as giddy as Indiana Jones as a schoolboy. I felt old last night when I considered that my fascination with total eclipses budded while reading about them in college, and that was so long ago that the books (published in the mid 1990s) only listed future total eclipses through about five years ago. 2017 was too far in the future to waste ink mentioning. I've told all the people I can to travel to the path of totality at any cost and by any means necessary, with all the fervency of an evangelist on the last day of the world. That's probably related to some thoughts I had a few years ago about how a total solar eclipse is a "lively image and type" (to borrow Jonathan Edwards's phrase) of the incarnation, humiliation, and ultimately, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I haven't had time to dig up what I wrote back then, but the gist of it is that as no one can look at the sun without being blinded, so no one can approach God in his holiness and majesty without being undone--except for in an eclipse, and except for in Jesus and his death. And not only can we look at the sun in a total eclipse, we can actually see and appreciate its beauty and brilliance more fully than when we look up for an instant and turn away squinting. I'll let you connect the spiritual dots; I have an early start tomorrow, and need to go home and try to sleep.

SUNSET TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE AT EL CALAFATE, ARGENTINA ON JULY 11, 2010. © 2010 LUKAS GORNISIEWICZ & DAVID MAKEPEACE. Accessed at https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/basics/

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