Worshipful Eclipse Watching: A Guest Blog Post

NOTE:  The following guest blog post was graciously provided by permission of its author, Claire (Grazier) Bolha, of Dayton, Ohio.  Claire is a Biology-Math graduate of Cedarville University (1995).  Her post is adapted from her Facebook reflections on the recent eclipse on April 8, 2024. 
As you read Claire’s reflections, we hope you will join in reverent praise to Christ, our Creator and Savior.

I wanted to capture a few thoughts I had about the eclipse for when these memories come up over the years ahead!

The weather was such an answer to prayer!  The kids and I had been praying for days that God would keep the clouds away so people could see His power.  I’m so thankful for a beautiful day!  In Ohio we don’t take that for granted, lol.

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens…
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?”  - Psalm 8:1, 3

We really were in awe of God’s infinite design in creation when we thought about how perfectly proportioned the moon’s diameter is compared to the sun’s diameter; and how it is the perfect distance away so that total eclipses are possible. Not a coincidence!

Experiencing a total eclipse was a much more impactful experience than I ever expected.  I’ve seen partial eclipses, and I thought they were neat, but I couldn’t imagine traveling for just a scant few minutes of totality.  

 

But WOW!  I see now why people do it!
It was amazing!
People were setting off fireworks and cheering!

We saw a solar flare! This is not my picture, but rather a picture Dawn Bouchard posted in Dayton Weather Spot, but you can see the flare down on the bottom!   And we saw both Jupiter and Venus on either side of the darkened sun!

It was amazing how much light/heat the sun puts out when just a tiny sliver is showing!  It was like a somewhat cloudy day, compared to it being like twilight/dusk in totality.  It was amazing how quickly after totality ended that it looked more or less like a regular day again.

Again, I’m so thankful we could experience this solar eclipse!  It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

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Claire and her husband, Bob, are parents of ten lovely children.  Claire teaches biology and chemistry at Providence Extension Program, a homeschool program with campuses in Dayton and Cincinnati.  Bob is  a retired Air Force Lt. Col., and currently works as a contractor at Wright-Patterson AFB.