While watching the recent eclipse, I found myself thinking about how awesome God is.
Well, "watching" might not be the right word. Everyone else seemed to have the proper eclipse glasses that they'd queued all day for.
Meanwhile, my plans were less sophisticated. My pinhole projector skills turned out to be completely non-existent, so I spent most of the eclipse running between the garden and the living room. Obviously, I wasn't looking directly at the sun. I was trying to catch glimpses of what was happening outside and then dashing back inside to watch the coverage on TV. By this point, I felt less like an amateur astronomer and more like a contestant on some bizarre fitness challenge. My step count was excellent, even if my eclipse-viewing technique wasn't.
This continued for a while until someone pointed out that I could simply stream it on my phone. That certainly made life easier.
But even in the middle of all that running around, I was struck by what I was seeing. Here was an event involving the sun, the moon, and the earth moving in such precise alignment that people across the world stopped what they were doing to watch. It reminded me that creation isn't random or chaotic. There is an incredible order to it all.
As I watched, I couldn't help thinking about the God who created it.
What makes God awesome to me isn't just His power to create a universe that can produce something as spectacular as an eclipse. It's that the same God who created the stars and planets also cares about ordinary people like us. He cares about our worries, our hopes, our struggles, and our everyday lives.
Like many people, I've had times when life has been difficult and I've wondered what God was doing. I've prayed prayers that seemed to hang in the air and faced situations I couldn't understand. Looking back, though, I can see that God never abandoned me. He was there in the encouragement of friends, in unexpected answers to prayer, and in the strength to keep going when I felt I couldn't take another step. His faithfulness wasn't always obvious in the moment, but it becomes clearer when I look in the rear-view mirror of life.
The eclipse reminded me of something important: if God is powerful enough to hold the universe together, then He's certainly big enough to handle anything I bring to Him. Yet despite His greatness, He still chooses to know and love each one of us personally.
As everything returned to normal after the eclipse, I was left with one simple thought: creation is amazing, but the Creator is even more amazing.
The eclipse was a reminder of God's incredible power, wisdom, and creativity. It also reminded me that when it comes to making a pinhole projector, I should probably leave that to the same people who can put together IKEA furniture without ending up with a spare screw and an important-looking bit left over at the end.
The heavens declared the glory of God. My pinhole projector declared absolutely nothing.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Psalm 19:1 (NIV)