It’s been a truly wonder-filled day! I’m not going to bed until I blog about it! Here I am above, waiting to see the eclipse. Below is the scene right behind me as I sat watching and waiting. So beautiful!

I got to be in Dallas today for the much-anticipated solar eclipse. That means I was in the path of totality.

It was amazing! I am here to be granny nanny for my new grandson. Providentially his birth was close to the date of the eclipse, thus I got to be here for both grand events. I planned it this way, and it worked out wonderfully! Today we packed up the baby, all the gear, and drove to a nature center to commune with rocks, grass, trees, birds, and flowers. While there we watched what just might be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

I keep thinking of the following scripture from the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ:

“…all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.” -Alma 30:44

As we all know from first grade science, our planet earth and its moon are always moving, the moon around the earth, and the earth around the sun. I am fascinated by the fact that smart people out there can predict the movements and know when these movements coincide to create an eclipse to tell us all so we can watch it.

Watch the video over here to see one way these movements “in their regular form” witness that there is a Supreme Creator, namely Jesus Christ. It shows how the paths of totality of some recent eclipses bear record of Jesus Christ by making the shapes of some of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, specifically the “aleph” and the “tav,” which are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Jesus himself calls Himself Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the ending. (Revelation 1:8)

It was a slow show. We got there with about 45 minutes left before the 4 minutes or so of totality. We kept watching with our glasses, seeing the moon gradually cross in front of the sun, looking away to visit, look at the flora, and in my case, delete files off my phone, something I often do when waiting for other things. As the moon moved completely in front of the sun, we were plunged into darkness that looked like twilight had settled across the park. How strange for it to be early afternoon, 1:40 PM, but feel like early evening. Here’s my feeble attempt at taking a photo of it with my cell phone, below.

This photo below of the bushes and flowers across the sidewalk from where I was sitting shows how it felt like nighttime in the middle of the day.

I took a photo of the complete eclipse, as shown two photos above, but you can’t really tell it’s an eclipse as there’s no dark center in the sun. So here’s a much better photo, below, a screenshot of a YouTube video from a local Dallas TV station.

It didn’t feel any colder. The birds started making more noise, and we could hear cheers from the children at the neighboring public elementary school. I felt so much joy to be a witness to this! It’s inexplicable in a way, other than saying I felt the power of the Creator Jesus Christ behind it all. It was simply breathtaking! How amazing that He planned it that the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, and 400 times closer to the earth than the sun. Because of this, there is a time in the “movements of their form” when the moon and earth line up with the sun. It was as if God was saying, “I created all of these for you to enjoy. I love you and want you to enjoy movement and beauty.”

Overall, it was beautifully symbolic to me of the death of Jesus Christ, how He was gone for three days, and then came back to life. How wonderful that this event could be so close to Easter, just a little over two weeks later.

Right after the eclipse I took a walk through the nature center while the new parents took baby on a walk in more stroller-friendly direction. I walked on dirt paths; they went the opposite way on sidewalks, pondering what we had just witnessed. The bees were making their rounds. I saw an orange moth light on the ground by my feet.

Everything felt the same but different at the same time.

Then we all went back to regular life, except not my true regular life, due to being away from dear husband and two youngest children back home in UT. But sort of my regular life, full of the mundane and the fun and relationships. I am forever changed for witnessing this wonder. It just reminded me of the goodness of God. That goodness came through as a complete stranger walked over to us, offering anyone free glasses to see the event. When he found out we didn’t need any, he said, “OK, very good.” It just reminded me of good people in the world who want to share the beauties of creation with others. When they see that people are able to enjoy the creation, they say “very good.” Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to explain it more completely. Maybe it will be by the time when the other new wonder of my life, my new grandson, is old enough to hear me tell the story. I’ll tell him how we all watched the eclipse while he was sleeping, how I was changed for the better by it, and how I was changed for the better by his birth as well.