I was thinking about all the anticipation surrounding the eclipse. Hundreds of thousands of people made reservations months in advance for places to stay along the best track possible. Leading up to it, everyone was so excited and talking about it. People on social media were letting their friends know where they were watching from. And as the eclipse began to happen, pics started flying over the internet. Central West Texas was packed! 

I wonder how many hours and how many dollars were spent to watch something that happened so quickly? Sadly, thousands and thousands of folks only had brief glimpses through the overcast skies. 

Interestingly, we've known for hundreds of years when this eclipse of the sun would occur. For the last hundred years or so, we knew the precise minutes it would start and end. I think of Genesis 1:14-18, “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.”  

Then I thought of the Son! Unlike the solar eclipse, but just as sure, the Son is coming back in all his radiance. One major difference is we have no idea when that event will occur. But I wonder just how much excitement and anticipation there is about that event? Are we talking about it? Are we planning for it? Are we letting others know there's a great place to be when it happens (in His church), and there's a bad place to be when it happens, (outside His church). When the Son appears EVERYONE will see Him. Everyone will see the true light of the world.  

I Thessalonians 4:16-18, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” -Jim Taylor