The eclipse today is proving to be something of a spiritual Rorschach Test. In a Rorschach Test a person is shown an ambiguous inkblot and is then asked to describe what they see. What a person says they see is then taken as an indication of their inner psychological and emotional state. Today’s eclipse has had this same effect on some people spiritually. Some are taking it as a sign of some impending apocalyptic upheaval.
“The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” Jesus said in his end times discourse on the Mount of Olives in Matthew 24:29-31. This imagery of cosmic shifts in the heavens and the disruption of familiar patterns here on earth were stock images in the Biblical worldview and vocabulary for a Theophany – a God appearance in time and space. Go back and read the accounts in the book of Exodus of the plagues in Egypt or Moses’ contact with the Living God on Sinai during the giving of the Law. Cosmic portends were vivid ways of talking about spiritual realities and Divine encounters. When God shows up, scary stuff happens.
This is the language Peter borrowed from the book of the Old Testament Prophet Joel to explain the events of the day of Pentecost – “And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day” (Acts 2:19-20/Joel 2:30-31). Peter painted with these colors again in his second letter when he turned his attention to delay of the Second Coming of Christ that had unsettled some people in his churches (2 Peter 2:8-13). Peter assured them that the promise of “new heavens and a new earth” was sure, and that its arrival would be signaled by that same sort of cosmic disturbance. And you don’t have to read very far into the book of Revelation before the mayhem in the heavens begins as the end draws nigh.
The folks who are taking today’s eclipse as a sign of the end of the world (something human beings have almost always done with eclipses, comets, and all other strange astronomical happenings) are taking their lead from this part of the Biblical witness. It’s part of the story, and to just write them off as crackpots is not going to foster the kind of faithful conversation that ought to be characteristic of a community that names Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Rather than scolding or shaming those who see the eclipse as a signal of doom, I’d like to talk with them instead about how there’s another faithful way to think about it. I see something else in this cosmic inkblot.
The Biblical portends in the heavens of the Consummation are all signs of cosmic disorder, disruption, and destruction. But an eclipse is a sign of the exact opposite of this. NASA keeps a precise record and has an accurate schedule of them. We’ve known for years now the exact moment of the exact day of the exact path of this total eclipse. And we already know this about the next total eclipse, and about the one after that, and about the one after that. An eclipse is a sign of cosmic order and of God’s continuing providential care, not of disorder, disruption, and destruction.
The Christ Hymn of Colossians 1 celebrates the way that “in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth,” and how “in Him all things hold together” (1:15-20). An eclipse is a better sign of this than of the Bible’s standard description of the chaos that the final dissolution of creation causes. Peace not panic is the right response to an eclipse. The moon crashing into the sun like a pool ball careening into another pool ball on a pool table – that would be a cause for some concern. That would prompt some appropriate doom and gloom. It would be hard to live in a universe where planets moved in unpredictable and unexpected ways. But an eclipse is not evidence of this.
An eclipse is instead good evidence that God has “set the planets in their courses above” as both Scripture and our beloved hymnody proclaims, and we should probably see in the predictable patterns of the natural world the common grace of a God who has ordered the universe and sustains it in such a way that human thriving is possible. This common grace is what Paul talked to the people of Lystra about in Acts 14:15-17 when he established the reality and goodness of God by pointing to how God as the Creator “made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them,” and how God as the Sustainer “does good and gives us from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying our hearts with food and gladness.”
Richard Mouw says that the first and most important theological decision we all must make is whether we think God loves us and wants to bless us both temporally and eternally, or whether we think God is mad at us and wants to make us just as miserable as He possibly can both temporally and eternally. A long time ago I concluded that God is good and generous based on what I knew about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Because of Christ I know that God is not reluctant to save us. Sure, our freedom leaves open the possibility for us to turn away, but God’s grace – what I see so clearly in the face of Christ – means that this isn’t what God wants. As Eugene Peterson whispered into his son’s ear each night as he tucked him into bed when he was just a little boy – “God loves you. He’s on your side. He’s coming after you. He’s relentless.” And I hear this same whispered message from our heavenly Father in today’s eclipse –
“The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)
Gratitude and not fear is what I will feel as I sit in my backyard this afternoon wearing those special glasses from Walmart watching the sun darken as the moon passes between it and me. This eclipse is not a sign of God’s displeasure with us. We’re not on the eve of destruction. I take it as a sign of God’s care instead, and of His eternal desire to bless us all.
That’s what I see in the inkblot.
*SOUNDINGS 