A TOTAL ECLIPSE
THE GOODTIME III
March 28, 2024
THE YOKE OF WORSHIP
June 4, 2024
This spring, Cleveland, Ohio along with other cities within a 113-mile-wide band, experienced a total eclipse of the sun. At approximately 3:10 PM on April 8th, 2024, the long-awaited for and much advertised spectacle occurred for about four minutes. Cleveland and surrounding suburbs were in the path of “totality” with the sun fully blocked by the moon. During that brief time, all that could be seen was the sun’s corona, appearing like a fiery halo around the moon.
My husband and I were off work, and we were able to watch from our front porch steps. We viewed through special protective glasses, glancing up to see slices of the sun getting smaller as the moon took its place front and center. Our neighborhood got strangely quiet as the darkness crept over us. It became so dark that the decorative solar lights came on in our flower beds.
At the moment of totality, the quiet broke and people erupted with cheers and fireworks. The news later reported about public venues playing Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit song, “A Total Eclipse of the Heart” to celebrate. What a great way to highlight the event!
Reminiscing about those song lyrics made me think of how God’s love for us can be “eclipsed” and blocked out by our love of other things besides Him. Here are some of those lyrics. “Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit lonely, and you’re never coming round…And I need you now…And I need you more than ever…I’m always in the dark…Nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart.” At the time of this recording. The artist told the media that the song was about someone who wants to love someone so badly that she is lying in complete darkness.
The angst of unmet love really comes across in that song. We can picture someone lying alone in the dark wondering, “Why can’t I find love? When will someone love me?” Those sleepless nights can lead a person into consternation, an agitated bewilderment and disillusionment about life’s circumstances.
Within all of us is a cry for love that says, “When will my heart feel love? Who will fill this relentless void inside of me?” We become parched for love with a thirst that is never quenched. Unless, in our desperation, we stop looking for human love to fill the void and look to God instead. Perhaps God’s love has been “eclipsed” by the urgent search for human love. Yet His love remains, although it is hidden.
In John 7:37, Jesus made people aware that He was able to fill that void that no person can fill.“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures said, ‘from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”.” Jesus was referring to the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Person of God who fills us when we believe in Jesus. From that moment on, the Holy Spirit monitors our heart, encouraging us and reminding us of God’s abundant love for us.
What gets in the way and blocks our heart from receiving our much-needed love from God” The “total eclipse of the heart” is caused by sin and the love of self. The Bible says, “…that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them.” (Ephesians 4: 17-18) Inner darkness blocks the knowledge of God, blotting out His radiance, when we ignore or deny His reality and ability to reach us.
God calls us out of this inner darkness when we “turn around” and search for Him instead of some fantasy lover. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling…” (Ephesians 1: 18)
Therefore, turn around, put all other loves aside and ask God for His “living water” that quenches your thirst. Turn away from sin and selfishness, remove the barriers between you and God by asking for His forgiveness. Come out from the “total eclipse of the heart” and He will flood your soul with His lavish love. Amen.
My husband and I were off work, and we were able to watch from our front porch steps. We viewed through special protective glasses, glancing up to see slices of the sun getting smaller as the moon took its place front and center. Our neighborhood got strangely quiet as the darkness crept over us. It became so dark that the decorative solar lights came on in our flower beds.
At the moment of totality, the quiet broke and people erupted with cheers and fireworks. The news later reported about public venues playing Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit song, “A Total Eclipse of the Heart” to celebrate. What a great way to highlight the event!
Reminiscing about those song lyrics made me think of how God’s love for us can be “eclipsed” and blocked out by our love of other things besides Him. Here are some of those lyrics. “Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit lonely, and you’re never coming round…And I need you now…And I need you more than ever…I’m always in the dark…Nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart.” At the time of this recording. The artist told the media that the song was about someone who wants to love someone so badly that she is lying in complete darkness.
The angst of unmet love really comes across in that song. We can picture someone lying alone in the dark wondering, “Why can’t I find love? When will someone love me?” Those sleepless nights can lead a person into consternation, an agitated bewilderment and disillusionment about life’s circumstances.
Within all of us is a cry for love that says, “When will my heart feel love? Who will fill this relentless void inside of me?” We become parched for love with a thirst that is never quenched. Unless, in our desperation, we stop looking for human love to fill the void and look to God instead. Perhaps God’s love has been “eclipsed” by the urgent search for human love. Yet His love remains, although it is hidden.
In John 7:37, Jesus made people aware that He was able to fill that void that no person can fill.“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures said, ‘from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”.” Jesus was referring to the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Person of God who fills us when we believe in Jesus. From that moment on, the Holy Spirit monitors our heart, encouraging us and reminding us of God’s abundant love for us.
What gets in the way and blocks our heart from receiving our much-needed love from God” The “total eclipse of the heart” is caused by sin and the love of self. The Bible says, “…that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them.” (Ephesians 4: 17-18) Inner darkness blocks the knowledge of God, blotting out His radiance, when we ignore or deny His reality and ability to reach us.
God calls us out of this inner darkness when we “turn around” and search for Him instead of some fantasy lover. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling…” (Ephesians 1: 18)
Therefore, turn around, put all other loves aside and ask God for His “living water” that quenches your thirst. Turn away from sin and selfishness, remove the barriers between you and God by asking for His forgiveness. Come out from the “total eclipse of the heart” and He will flood your soul with His lavish love. Amen.
