Alive to the Wonder of this Moment

Today is my only child’s first day of 1st grade. Today is also the greatly anticipated total solar eclipse over the continental U.S. While no one will be paying much attention to my child’s special milestone as much as her mama, the whole world will pay attention to the moment when two heavenly bodies align in a cosmic dance.

Why is it that God usually shows up in surprising ways, so often unannounced, yet today he shows up in his creation for an event that has been long rehearsed. This cosmic choreography has been traced through science and mathematical patterns in the heavens.

Is there something to be seen of the God who casts wonders across the skies that we would marvel because of their irregularity? When two faithful friends rise high in the sky, holding hands in syncopated rhythm like we’ve so rarely seen, the phenomenon causes a soul to wonder at the exactitude of their Master.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. ISAIAH 40:26

I’ve had many emotions in anticipation of this 21st day of August, when my baby girl goes to her first and only first day of the First grade. I simultaneously think about the cosmically slim possibilities of ever seeing a total solar eclipse like this again. It is a milestone in the Earth’s history that will be a first of it’s kind in my experience and a last for this American generation.

What if today is the only day we will all experience this kind of wonder? It lasts but a moment, and then it passes by. The moon will release her hands with her dance partner and go about her regular course on God’s great dance floor.

What if today is the day you get to decide what to do with your wonder? You can pass it by with barely a blink and never know what you had missed. Or you can pause. Soak in the miracle of this moment, and realize this is the first time you have ever lived this day. Why not breath it in? Awaken your soul to it, become fully alive to the wonder.