Editor’s Note: On August 21st a solar eclipse occurred over much of the United States. Following are reflections by Annina inspired by this event.

Today I was thinking about how much I take for granted daily miracles. I assume the sun will rise–that it will shine. Monday’s eclipse had me looking in the Word about the sun being darkened. It struck me that an eclipse is a special opportunity to think of all the Lord does for us daily and in every instant–His Heat and Light flowing down unendingly–as we watch an earthly picture of something out of the ordinary–we see what it would be like without the life-giving sun.

There is something pause-worthy about an event like this, it is awe-inspiring for many reasons. It makes me think of how often I get in the way of what the Lord wants to be brought into the world. How my natural/sensual life becomes more important to me when I am not looking Up. How it gets in the way of the Lord’s life shining through me. How my old will can block out the best of the gifts the Lord is sending towards me.

Worthy of pause.

I heard one person who was in totality during the eclipse describe how right as the sun disappeared fully behind the moon the temperature immediately dropped. It made me think about how when we block what the Lord sends to us we feel first the loss of heat, warmth, love, and interest in life. It is the light coming back that has to happen first. We have to search for that light–even only a TINY visible rim illuminates the whole world around us–and then the heat can reach us again. Such a strong image…

‘And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.’ (Revelation 6:12-14)

‘And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.’ (Luke 23: 44-46)

And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, signifies that all the good of love was separated, and thence all the truth of faith falsified. This is evident from the signification of “sun” as being in the highest sense the Lord in respect to Divine love, and thence with man the good of love to the Lord from the Lord (of which presently); also from the signification of “black as sackcloth of hair,” as being separated; “black” is predicated of thick darkness, thus of what does not appear from any light. It is said “as sackcloth of hair,” because it means the sensual of man, which is the lowest of the natural, and is thus round about the interiors, in which it induces thick darkness. (Apocalypse Explained 401:1)

Because such things are signified by “the sun darkened,” therefore the sun was darkened when the Lord was upon the cross, because He was entirely rejected by the church…At the sixth hour darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour, for the sun was darkened (Luke 23:44-45). This was done as a sign and token that the Lord was denied, and that thence there was no good nor truth with those who were of the church; for with them all signs from the heavens represented and signified such things as are of the church, because the church with them was a representative church, or consisted of such things in externals as represented and thus signified the internal things of the church. That “darkness came over all the land” signified that with those who were of the church there was nothing except the falsities of evil, “all the land” meaning all the church, and “darkness” signifying falsities; that it continued for three hours, namely, “from the sixth to the ninth hour,” signifies that there remained mere falsity, and no truth whatever, for “three” signifies full, whole, and entirely, and “six” and “nine” signify all things in the complex, here falsities and evils; and because there were falsities and evils with them, from the Lord’s having been denied, therefore it is said, “and darkness came, and the sun was darkened;” “the sun” that was obscured, meaning the Lord, who is said to be “obscured” when falsities so prevail in the church that He is not acknowledged, and evils so prevail that He is crucified. (Apocalypse Explained 401:15)