HEAVENLY SIGNS

TOTAL ECLIPSE, NASA

COMET, HUBBLE

COMET NEOWISE, ISS

The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic infected an estimated 500 million people and resulted in 50 million deaths.  Since that occurred just over 100 years ago, there aren’t many people around today that have any memory of that horrific time in human history.  None of us today that are experiencing the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown have ever experienced this massive effort to slow its progress from host to host in our cultures.  Now that we’re entering the second half of the year 2020, this isolation of relational beings is beginning to take its toll along with the virus.  Combined with an extremely contentious major election year, the old adage that if it happens now, it’s political!

The very destructive riots in many of our major cities that have hijacked peaceful American protests for cultural change are no doubt being fueled by unemployed people with too much time on their hands.  The Atlantic hurricane season is now fully underway with the first landfall in southern Texas.  High heat and humidity in the heart of the summer season grips much of the nation.  All of this troubling activity combined with the serious implications of not opening our schools and businesses has people looking for answers. 

 It's been said that when humans do not understand something, they generally react in one of two ways—they either fear it or worship it.  That certainly goes for heavenly signs in the skies above us.  Two very obvious happenings in both day and night time relate to total eclipses of the sun and the seeming random appearance of bright tailed comets streaking across the horizon.  The planet has witnessed total eclipses every 177 days somewhere including December 26, 2019 and June 21, 2020.  Comet Neowise was first seen by astronomers on March 27, 2020 and its 70-day observation arc will be lost to the human eye before the end of July.  It isn’t forecast to return until the year 8786. 

 Although we now know that an eclipse is a natural phenomenon, many cultures have attributed them to supernatural causes and bad omens.  An ancient Greek battle between the Medes and the Lydians was being waged when a total solar eclipse darkened the battlefield.  Both sides immediately lowered their weapons and declared peace!  The ancients also regarded comets as omens of disaster and messengers of the gods.  These celestial nomads have been blamed for some of history’s darkest times from England’s Black Death to Pizarro’s conquest of the Incas in South America!

So, are all of these signs attempting to attract our attention?  Have we all been sent to our rooms by divine command to reconsider the direction of our lives and that of our planet?  Are these extraordinary happenings one last chance to reconcile our place in the universe and resolve to live together in peace?