Our other home—in northeast Kansas—lies in the direct path of the total eclipse. At one point, Randa and I had planned to go up and be there for the super-hyped event. But, in view of the multiple forecasts of over-saturated travel zones, an invasion of hundreds of thousands of solar-seeking spectators and all sorts of shortages, outages and portages, we decided to stay in Ark City.

As it turns out, the weather forecast for that particular segment of NOAA’s prognostication domain indicates a twenty percent chance of showers and thunderstorms this morning followed by “partly sunny” conditions. I guess if the part that is sunny turns out to be at the peak of the predicted phenomenon, those eclipse glasses will come in pretty handy.

Having gotten a pretty good head start on the current generation, I’ve witnessed a few eclipses over the years. I’ve never bought the glasses but I’ve never ventured to stare into the sun during an eclipse either. Seeing it get sort of dark in the middle of the day when there’s not a cloud in the sky is a pretty cool thing. Some people believe that the darkness that fell upon Jerusalem and the area when Jesus was crucified was due to a rather well-timed eclipse.

On its surface that seems like a plausible explanation, I suppose, though there are others who say, “Hold on a minute there, Sunshine; there’s all sorts of evidence that this was not your usual solar eclipse.” I certainly welcome you to dig into the history and the apologetics relating to that discussion. I might even join you.

That bit of controversy to the side, I will confess that today’s eclipse is interesting to me but not nearly as compelling as it apparently is to a great many folks. I hope they all get the view for which they’re looking and hoping. Seeing the sun darkened on a significant segment of the earth for a while is a pretty cool thing, especially if it happens at just the right time to keep you from being the next Aztec sacrifice.

But the event that I really, really, really want to see? Well that would be when the Son returns to this earth…

H. Arnett
8/21/17