It happened this morning.
BAM. BADABING BADABOOM.
A solar eclipse over Scotland. Cue music.
So maybe I didn't necessarily get a Bonnie Tyler moment like in the music video above, but it was cool to experience a total solar eclipse while living in the UK.
Millions of people across northern Europe, from Scandinavia to the British Isles, set aside their morning to witness the moon passing over the sun in perfect form. In Edinburgh, hundreds of people showed up on The Meadows, a vast stretch of green space in the heart of the city. Dog-walkers, joggers, throngs of primary school children happily running around and swinging on the playgrounds, and university students like me waited with bated breath to catch a glimpse of the ever-elusive eclipse.
In the days leading up to today, all the news outlets (and my friends) told me not to look directly at the sun. I pleaded, noooooo whyyyyy in typical pleading fashion, because I wanted to watch the exact moment the moon covered up the sun. But alas, my friends, especially my astrophysicist friend, implored me to use a pinhole cardboard device or special eyewear or just simply don't look at the sun directly, lest I damage my eyes. Permanently.
I don't want my eyes to develop cataracts or go blind, so I opted to follow the advice of the people around me (thanks, friends and BBC).
This got me thinking...the Sun sort of represents God. It's not a perfect metaphor to describe the nature of God, but the Sun does provide insights into his holiness and life-giving power.
(so you might be thinking, "waaaaiiiit whaaaa" ... #dontworryigotchu)
3 REASONS WHY THE SUN = METAPHOR FOR GOD
1) Without the Sun, we'd be dead. Let's be real, the world would be an ice-cold, frosty-frozen place.
 | |
| do you want a world full of frozen Kristoffs? (no.) |
No plants, no trees, no jungles, no Lion King...no food, no crops, no bread, no bread pudding because of no bread...
SAME WITH GOD. Without God, we wouldn't exist. The first thing the Bible talks about is God creating the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), and later on the same story declares God made mankind in his own image (Genesis 1:27). I believe we were created with a purpose, with a reason for existence, and we wouldn't have existed if it weren't for God's great love.
2) No matter how tempting it may be...no matter how beautiful the Sun is...ladies and gents, please don't look at the Sun directly. (Take it from someone who has, and is probably suffering permanent eye damage right now...). The Sun is awesome, but if you (i.e. astronauts / NASA people) travel too close to the Sun, they'll burn up because the Sun is so hot!
Similarly, we as human beings can't approach God by ourselves. God is so holy that nothing unclean can enter his perfect presence. (Remember when God told Moses to take off his sandals because the ground he was walking on was holy? And other stories like that show us God's amazing holiness and perfection). We are unclean people, sinners in need of saving. God did that. God sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us so that Jesus could clothe us with His righteousness, with His perfect holiness. That way, we may enter into God's kingdom (and party with God forever)!
3) There are sunny days, and there are not-so-sunny days. Attending Brown University in Rhode Island has taught me that. Living in Scotland has taught me that. First-hand experience has taught me that beautiful sunny Sundays may turn into cloudy-and-stormy Mondays.
But just because the Sun shines bright on Sunday doesn't mean the Sun disappeared on Monday. Just because we can't see the orange orb rising or feel the warmth of its golden rays doesn't mean the Sun vanished...it just means there are things in the way, like rain, or hail, or clouds. But the Sun is always there. It's always there.
So it is with God. Some days we're gonna feel like we've known him for so long (#bffs), other days we're gonna ask him "where are you?!". But just know and believe and trust that God is always there, with us. He's not up in the sky or thousands of miles away. He is here, right here, with you. All you need to do, is just ask him to make you more aware of his presence. His awesome, perfect, loving presence.
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