Woo-hoo!!!

Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! -Psalm 148:3

I want to take a break from Genesis today and jump to this verse from Psalms. I was not prepared for the emotional impact a total eclipse would have on me. As the eclipse began, Richard, Cecelia and I would use our eclipse glasses to watch.  And it was pretty cool to watch. But once the moon completely covered the sun, it immediately got dark and a few degrees cooler. We could take off our glasses and witness the glory of the sun's corona around the edges of the moon.   At that moment my eyes teared up and if my knees had been about 20 years younger, I would have hit them.  

It was a humbling sight. I at once felt my own insignificance as well as part of something so much bigger. This earth and sun and moon thing has been going on for millions of years. Even as people of faith, we have this notion of control. It's an illusion. If the earth stops turning or the moon drops from orbit or the sun ceases to shine, we are gone. If all bees succumb to pesticides, we are gone. If trees all become homes and furniture and paper, we are gone. If the polar ice caps melt to nothing, we are gone. So far, and in spite of mankind, it's all still running. 

In that minute of totality (the other minute and a half was obscured by clouds), all these feelings rushed through me, but the thought top-most in my mind was "Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars!" but for some reason, what came out of my mouth was, "Woo-hoo!!!!"  I think God knew what I meant.

God of Creation,

Woo-hoo!!! Amen.