Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;

• Ecclesiastes 12:2

My sister-in-law in Texas texted me this photo.  It is the reflection of the sun off her middle son’s arm.  They were in a community near NASA headquarters south of Houston, Texas.  I love the idea of seeing the reflection.  You get to see the eclipse without all the dangers in looking at the sun.

He is the son (note s-o-n) of my sister-in-law, thus nephew, who shared a birthday with my wife.  That birthday is coming up in another month.  So, “Happy birthday” a little early.

One of that sister-in-law’s other sons had a son, again born on that day of the calendar, but the one in the photo, at least the arm, would race to call my wife to wish her a happy birthday first.  This will be the first year that will not happen.

But as for the eclipse?  My sister-in-law sent this photograph and another that is simply bizarre.  She also sent a little taunt.

She basically said that this is what the eclipse looked like in Texas.  Pennsylvania had clouds.

Indeed, about the time of the eclipse, I looked out the back door and it was raining, not raining, or that northern USA ooze.  Not enough moisture to fall as drops of rain, but driving through it would produce mud on the windshield.  I call it “Yankee Rain.”  Very irritating if you run out of windshield washer fluid.  In Boston, back many years ago, I had to pull over and use an article of clothing just to have a patch of windshield that I could see through.

But I digress.

In our part of Pennsylvania, we got fog throughout the day, unable to see more than one block away from the house.  I could have posted a photo of a white sheet of paper and said it was the eclipse in Pennsylvania.  But even a fog that lasted all day was an unusual sight.

I don’t know if you saw the eclipse, but the Scripture above seems to fit the situation.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.