Rending Eclipse
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why take a second look our way?
I was thinking about the Eclipse. Considering what a photo of the eclipse might look like taken from my camera. What might God say about it.
I was being quiet before God (now don’t be misled, it was after stressing out multiple times during the week about being prepared to take pictures of the eclipse and he was good to patiently and painstakingly quiet my soul multiple times), still and sitting there before Him, beginning to take in His word as thoughts still tried to tumble about in my head.
Whoa, the brevity of the eclipse and it shadow falling! I imagined what it would be like under the brief fleeting shadow of the eclipse. I imagined all humanity looking up to witness it. I felt our own briefness, our smallness.
With all the expanse of the heavens, all the glory that extends out from start to star, galaxy to galaxy, who is He to think of us? I’m not going to get into a debate right now about whether there is other life out in the universe. (not the point right now) But considering the significance of our smallness in the midst of the vastness, what if we are the only ones? The impending feeling of insignificance in the great significance of the universe begins to fall on us. Our fleeting life in the midst of the light years.
Light years strung together again and again in the sky.
Constellations of questions, stories to bring understanding. To bring significance.
Maybe they are signs. Maybe they are witnesses.
Maybe in the midst of the great expanse of the universe. God himself is whispering in grand gestures.
“Though the heavens expands as to infinity. Though I myself breathed the stars into life. Though I tell the Sun where to stand and showed the Moon where to dance. Though I am greater than even all I created. You are significant to me. You. Yes you. I think about. I took great care in creating, forming, molding, shaping and loving You. Yes, you. I made You. Yes You. With my own hands.”
Guess what the next verse says, right after the psalmists heart cry of our fleeting insignificance.
What comes next. Pure beauty.
“Lord, rend the heavens come down!” (Psalm 144:5 cross referenced with Isaiah 64:1)
I looked it up. The significance of rend. Its meaning.
Do you know what it means? I didn’t, but now I do and its seared into my heart and mind now. May it burn deep in you too.
Rend means…
To tear something into two or more pieces, wrench something violently, cause great emotional pain (a person or their heart). (Google definition)
And now going to copy and paste the Merriam Webster definition. So it just sinks deeper. Look close.
rent \ˈrent\ also rended \ˈren-dəd\; rending
transitive verb
1 : to remove from place by violence : wrest
2 : to split or tear apart or in pieces by violence
3 : to tear (the hair or clothing) as a sign of anger, grief, or despair
4 a : to lacerate mentally or emotionally
b : to pierce with sound
c : to divide (something, such as a nation) into contesting factions
intransitive verb
1 : to perform an act of tearing or splitting
2 : to become torn or split
Sounds familiar. Sounds like Jesus on the cross. Sounds like God sending His only Son to die for us. I hear the pierce. Listen. I hear His heart breaking for us. I hear His anger, grief and despair.
“I want my children with me! I love them! They are significant to me!”
I hear a Good Father.
He is faithful to answer the call of our hearts, even before we even call out. “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24.
His piercing cry rings out:
“I broke! I tore! I was ripped into pieces! I was pierced! Torn apart, in grief, anger, and despair! No longer the distance! No longer! You are my significance! I will be lacerated in body, mind, soul and spirit for you! I was pierced by the sound of your cry, like a good Father. I answer it! I answered it before it was even on your lips! You ARE significant to me. You ARE my child. You ARE my children. My heart torn in two. I am split. I WILL split the heavens to come to you. I WILL split the universe to get to you. I WILL tear it all to meet you face to face. To bring You home. I WILL rend the heavens and come down. At all cost. I HAVE and I WILL.”
I bless you in the midst of all the eclipse photos and videos to hear the tear. Hear the tear and say Yes. I bless you to hear the rip, the tear of the heavens, of His heart for you. “Rend the heavens come down.”
Rend. Rend. Rend.
More amazing photos of the 2017 eclipse on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/nasa-eclipse2017/pool/
Some say the moon is symbolic of the bride of Christ. So romantic. Beautiful. That is His proposal for you. To be His beloved. To look at Him face to face for life. Sun looks at Moon, moon looks at Sun, and all Earth looks up to witness the aligning of two bodies as One. A glorious display of His Splendor. His Covenant Ring in the Sky. His sign to you.
And a song for you. "Heart", by Sleeping at Last
May you rest in His Great love for You.
Another Psalm on Your Significance to Him.
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
2You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
7Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
15My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17How precious to me are your thoughts,a God!
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22I have nothing but hatred for them;
23Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
(And when you read about him slaying the wicked and begin to cringe inside to resist the words. Remember this, He chose to put all wickedness on His Son. And slay Him instead. Even our call to destroy others and ourselves. He answered in His Son.)