We humans have an old Latin phrase to describe the earth: terra firma. We really don’t think of the earth, at least, of shifting below our feet, although the political and social ground may. However, there is a liquid core to the earth, which geophysicists tell us is constantly moving causing the slightest oscillation in the movement of the earth.
Today’s solar eclipse will allow scientists to learn more about our earth. It is more than amazing that a 2100-mile-wide ball of rock 240,000 miles from us could block out an 870,000-mile-wide ball of gas 93 million miles from us. Solar eclipses occur close to clockwork and help scientists understand how the size and movement of the earth shifts over time. The size and distance of moon and sun are just perfect for this phenomenon.
The temperature will drop, birds will stop singing, and some animals will go back into their holes, but we humans, knowing what is to come and go will simply watch in awe. As we learn more about the incredible universe we have and the many more it seems that exist, we realize how magnificent our Creator must be.
Prayer for the Day
Like the Psalmist, O God, we marvel at your creation,
The work of your hands, the miracle from your mind;
Like the Palmist we gaze at the universe around us,
With stars and suns and galaxies beyond our wildest dreams.
But we know, O God, that it is here on earth we live,
Called to care for all your creatures including our brothers and sisters.
In the name of the One who teaches us how to care,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Once we lose our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe which dwarfs -- in time, in space, and in potential -- the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors.”
Carl Sagan, from Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1934-1996)
It is a solemn thought that no man liveth unto himself. It is equally true that no star, no atom, no electron, no ripple of radiant energy exists unto itself. All the problems of the physical universe are inextricably bound with one another in the relation of space and time.
Alice Vibert Douglas, Canadian astronomer (1894-1988)
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars you have established;
What are human beings hat you are mindful of us, mortals that you care for us?
Psalm 8: 2-4