The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1a (NIV)
This Psalm of David exclaims “The heavens declare the glory of God,” but not the will of God. In other words, pondering the majesty of the universe should draw us to worship the God who created it all, but elsewhere the Bible warns us not to follow horoscopes, fortune tellers, or a New Age philosophy that worships the creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:25, Leviticus 19:31, Deut. 4:19, Lev. 20:6.)
If David was moved to worship by what he saw from the heavens with his naked eye about 3,000 years ago, how much more we should be humbled with all that modern technology tells us about the size and mysteries of the Cosmos.
Many in North America were recently treated to a rare sight, a solar eclipse, as a band of totality spread from western Mexico, across the US from Texas to Maine, and then parts of eastern Canada.
Total solar eclipses are seen somewhere on Earth every few years, but since about 71% of the globe is covered by water, few paths cross land. Moreover, for any one spot on earth, it’s about 375 years between solar eclipses.
It turns out, the sun is about 400 times larger than the moon, but it’s also about 400 times more distant from Earth. So, on those rare occasions when they perfectly line up as seen from Earth, the two appear to be the same size as the moon completely blocks out the sun, allowing the naked eye to safely see the fiery rim around the sun, called the corona.
In other words, if the moon were slightly bigger or closer, it would blot out the corona from view. But, if the moon were slightly smaller or more distant, no total eclipse would be possible, and looking at it without protection would burn your eyeballs out.
Some secular sources attribute solar eclipses to “the slightly weird mathematical coincidence,” “a fantastic celestial coincidence,” or a “total coincidence.”
But instead of a “coincidence,” might it be a “God-incidence”? Considering the sheer magnitude of the universe, and the angles, tilts, and distances involved, might solar eclipses be another of God’s silent ways of saying “Hey, I’m here!”
And maybe even showing God has a clever sense of humor?
Go Deeper: Read more about how rare solar eclipses show us God’s handiwork in this essay by a Ph.D. in astrophysics, “The Heavens declare the Glory of God: A scientist’s view of the solar eclipse.”