Like everyone else, we obsessively watched the Eclipse Day weather forecast. By Sunday evening, we knew we would drive to Indianapolis, see the eclipse, then come home. An easy day’s journey. At 7:45 AM we headed out. Estimated travel time to Indy was about 3 1/2 hours.
Because Jenna was driving, all I had to do was look out the window and think. Traffic was lightish until we got to Indiana. Then we hit patches of slowdown. I began to wonder if we would get there in time. Then things would let up and I would start to think about …
Cloud-cover. Did the horizon ahead look overcast? The weather called for partly cloudy skies. What if it was mostly cloudy? Then I would look up and realize there were only high thin clouds above us, so maybe it would be okay. Then, I started to think about …
Parking. What if we couldn’t find any when we got there? Would it be wall-to-wall people and cars?
And what time was the eclipse supposed to start? Where should we be for the best view? Have we gotten into the totality zone yet? What if we came all this way and missed the eclipse?
Are you laughing at me yet? I am. I know better than this. I do.
“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” asks the Master. (Matthew 6:27 NLT)
Um, no. And they don’t control traffic or weather, either. But I know Who does.
You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Trust in the Lord always,
for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
Isaiah 26:3-4 NLT
The antidote to worry is trusting God. Easy to say, harder to do. But God rewarded my attempts.
We traveled through Indianapolis and further south. Then we got off, parked, put on our glasses and looked up. We were just in time. The moon had already taken a nibble of sun. In a cloudless sky.
Just before the sun fully disappeared, I saw bands of red and green around it’s edges. At totality, it looked like a blue eye: a black center rimmed with blue inside the corona. (Did anyone else see that, or was it because I have a small cataract in my eye?) It was night-dark overhead, and we could see stars, but the horizon was in daylight.
It was 4 minutes of amazing. Everything we’d hoped and more. We headed for home in high spirits, blissfully unaware of what was coming next.