This past Monday, millions of people across North America took a break from their busy or not-so-busy lives to watch the solar eclipse. I, along with so many others, stepped away from my desk, away from my work, and went outside to crane my neck and peer into the sky as the moon passed in front of the sun. Here in White Bear Lake, the event was far from dramatic. The skies were overcast, and all I perceived was a darkening of the day. In other places, of course, the event was much more dramatic, and spectacular photographs of the eclipse were immediately shared across the internet.

How refreshing to have this event unify so many of us! In these tumultuous times in which we live, how splendid to share a few minutes of solidarity. People from across all political, religious and racial persuasions came together this past Monday night to be amazed and find wonder in God’s handiwork!

The natural world has the capacity to amaze… to draw us together, to help us connect with the deeper, truer parts of ourselves, to remind us humans that we are part of a beautiful complex web of life that is so much larger than our own little lives, to help us humans become, well, more humane. Time spent in the natural world has the capacity to do all of that for us.

Clearly, not all days are set apart and blessed by a total solar eclipse. All of our days, however, each and every one of them, has plenty of signs of wonder to help us to remember who we are and to reconnect us with the deep, deep pool of life and love that Jesus calls the Kingdom of God.  

For the most part, those of us in the parish family of St. John’s are pretty good folk. We pray and we grow and we serve. Most of us try to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. And let me tell you, living a life following the Way of Jesus is both challenging and sometimes exhausting. 

And so, as we engage each of the days that God gives us, my hope would be that we might pause regularly from whatever we may be doing, pause to step back into the natural world of which we truly are a part. My hope would be that, for maybe just a few minutes of each day, we might become as little children and adopt a disposition of wonder and amazement. My hope would be that as we reconnect with what connects us all, we might be recharged to then go forth back into our lives and into the world to do something good to the glory of God.

~Father Art