{"id":3552,"date":"2024-04-08T09:19:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T13:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3552"},"modified":"2024-04-08T09:19:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T13:19:30","slug":"three-minutes-of-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/08\/three-minutes-of-wonder\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Minutes of Wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

This very day, millions of Americans will have the chance to see something they may never see again.

Purdue University is playing in the March Madness championship game.

OK, there\u2019s that.\u00a0 But an event of vastly greater significance than what\u2019s happening to my alma mater will be happening in the skies above the central part of the United States.\u00a0

The moon, passing between the Earth and the sun, will gradually obscure the sun\u2019s brilliant surface.\u00a0 This \u201ctransit\u201d takes about two-and-a-half hours, and the shadow it casts \u2013 racing along at about 2,000 mph \u2013 will progress from southwest Texas to New England.

While much of the country will experience a partial solar eclipse, large metro areas like Dallas, Indianapolis, and Cleveland \u2013 not to mention hundreds of smaller communities \u2013 are in the so-called \u201czone of totality.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a 67-mile-wide path where the light of the sun will be completely obscured for about three minutes.\u00a0

Cloud cover will no doubt compromise the show in some localities.\u00a0 But something like 31.5 million people will at the very least experience sudden darkness in the middle of the day, making this the most observed solar eclipse in human history.

Multitudes have made plans to travel to viewing spots within the zone, which means this may also be the only time in history in which a huge number of people have said, \u201cHey, let\u2019s go to Terre Haute, Indiana!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0

Why is everyone so worked up about wearing \u201csolar-safe\u201d viewing glasses?

There is nothing \u2013 absolutely nothing \u2013 that makes an eclipse unusually dangerous with regard to human eyesight.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that the sun is always<\/em> dangerous, day in and day out.\u00a0 But people rarely find it even remotely interesting to stare at the disk of our nearest star.\u00a0

When we do fix our unfiltered gaze on the sun, bad things happen.\u00a0 Sunlight is actually a stream of photons, byproducts of the nuclear fusion that is happening deep within the sun\u2019s core. \u00a0Those photons have the power to overwhelm the chemical receptors on our retinas, the delicate tissue at the back of our eyeballs responsible for the phenomenon of sight.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take much to put our retinas out of commission for good.\u00a0

Sir Isaac Newton, the brilliant 17th<\/sup> century scientist, once stared for a few long moments at the reflection of the sun in a mirror.\u00a0 The result was temporary blindness.\u00a0

Even after hiding for three days in a darkened room, Newton couldn\u2019t dispel the bright spot that seemed to have burned itself into his consciousness.\u00a0 \u201cI used all means to divert my imagination from the sun, but if I thought upon him I presently saw his picture though I was in the dark.\u201d\u00a0 If he had stared just a few moments longer, he would have lost his vision permanently \u2013 proof that even geniuses, prompted by simple curiosity, can make unfortunate decisions.\u00a0 \u00a0

What\u2019s the big deal with totality?\u00a0

First, it\u2019s very cool.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 As the sun\u2019s light is completely blocked by the presence of the moon, air temperatures can drop anywhere from 5 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit.\u00a0 Brief thunderstorms can even erupt when cooler air pushes warmer air toward the ground, forcing more humid air to rise, condense, and dramatically \u201crain out.\u201d\u00a0

Living things often respond dramatically.\u00a0 Birds and insects may grow quiet, as if it\u2019s night, and bats may emerge from their sleeping quarters.\u00a0 Bees return to their hives.\u00a0 Dogs have been observed cowering.\u00a0 Horses and cows may head toward their stables.

Science writer Jeffrey Kluger notes, \u201cOf all the animals worth observing during a total solar eclipse, perhaps none are more intriguing than humans.\u201d

A hush is likely to fall over those huddled together in \u201csun parties.\u201d\u00a0 Some may shed tears. \u00a0Others may applaud.\u00a0

Democrats may join hands with Republicans, teenagers might put down their smart phones, and fans of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox may even apologize for things they said to each other 40 years ago.\u00a0

A total eclipse may not yield all those redemptive moments, but it will almost certainly generate a deeply felt sense of awe \u2013 especially as we contemplate the extraordinary circumstances that make it possible.

The Earth, it turns out, is the only planet \u2013 the only place \u2013 in our solar system from which one can view this phenomenon.\u00a0 We know of 292 other moons in our solar system, orbiting the other planets, but none of them is configured in such a way that the total surface of the sun is perfectly covered, thereby highlighting the sun\u2019s corona.\u00a0

The sun is approximately 400 times larger than our moon, but it\u2019s also 400 times further away.\u00a0 That makes it the perfect size (at least from where we are standing) to generate a perfect eclipse. Thoughtful people can be led to different conclusions, but the math here certainly seems to suggest design.\u00a0

Why does this matter?\u00a0

Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez notes, \u201cPerfect solar eclipses have resulted in important scientific discoveries that would have been difficult if not impossible elsewhere, where eclipses don\u2019t happen.\u201d\u00a0 That includes what we have learned about the nature of stars by observing the sun\u2019s corona during those precious few minutes of totality.\u00a0 It also includes a remarkable confirmation of Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity, which predicted that the gravity of the sun would bend light.\u00a0 In 1919, astronomers viewing a total eclipse documented that very thing.

All this focus on the power of light can also steer us back to I John 1:5, which declares, \u201cGod is light, and in him is no darkness at all.\u201d\u00a0 In John 1:18 we read, \u201cNo one has ever seen God.\u201d

It\u2019s easy to see why no human being can ever look at God\u2019s essence with unfiltered eyesight.\u00a0 We simply don\u2019t have the physical, mental, or spiritual apparatus to survive such an experience.

But there\u2019s more to John 1:18: \u201cNo one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse, but [Jesus], this one-of-a-kind God-Expression, has made him plain as day\u201d (The Message<\/em>).

We can\u2019t gaze directly at God.\u00a0 But God has made it possible to see him \u2013 to see who he really is \u2013 by fixing our attention on his Son.

That\u2019s an experience more transforming than an endless number of eclipses.

May today\u2019s spectacle in the sky open our eyes to that truth as never before.\u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here This very day, millions of Americans will have the chance to see something they may never see again. Purdue University is playing in the March Madness championship game. OK, there\u2019s that.\u00a0 But an event of vastly greater significance than what\u2019s happening to my alma mater will be happening in the skies… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[308,711],"class_list":["post-3552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-astronomy","tag-eclipse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3554,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/3554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}