Ginny and I are heading out to Utopia, Texas to visit my sister Melanie Stringfellow and her husband Steve and see the solar eclipse on Saturday at noon on Oct. 14.
Full solar eclipses are rare things, about 25 each century in the United States so any eclipse is rare.
But what’s going on in Utopia (population 211) is downright spooky. Not only is there going to be a full solar eclipse this fall in Utopia, there’s going to be another one on April 8, 2024.
The path of an eclipse is about 100 miles wide. The area in which two different eclipse paths intersect is 100 times 100, which equals 10,000 square miles. The earth is 170 million earth square miles, so the chance of Utopia being in the path of both eclipses is one in 17,000.
The United States is 246 years old and it has never had two solar eclipses within one year, so the chances of these two eclipses being within six months of each other is a minimum of one in 246.
Combining the one in 246 with the one in 17,000, you get the chance of Utopia being in the path of two solar eclipses within six months of each other being at least one in 4,182,000.
There are no towns in the world named “heaven” but there are seven named Utopia and 44 named “paradise.” This is out of 4,000,000 unique towns and cities in the world, according to Google.
So the chance of a town having a heaven-like name is one in 78,000. That makes the chance of a solar eclipse occurring within six months in a town with a heaven-like name is one in 16.7 trillion.
Do you see where this is going? I mean what better time for Jesus to come back than on a beautiful hilltop overlooking Utopia on a spring morning in west Texas during the second total solar eclipse in a row? So of course I have to go to Texas and check it out!
Jesus said in Matthew 24:33-36: “Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Far be it from me to predict the rapture, but I’m thinking if it’s going to happen in my life, April 8, 2024 would help explain all these impossible probabilities.
But these improbable eclipse odds are nothing compared to the improbability of our universe. There are four forces in the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, nuclear and radioactivity. For the universe to exist, these four forces have to be operating within very narrow parameters, something like 10 to the power of 200. That would be one out of 10 followed by 200 zeros.
So the odds of our very existence are infinitesimal. It should be as impossible for life to exist as it would be for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle. But with God, all things are possible.
This strange reality has vexed the scientific community, which has been unable to explain it. The best they’ve come up with is something called “anthropic principle” which Wikipedia defines as this: “The anthropic principle explains why the conditions happen to be just right for the existence of intelligent life on the Earth at the present time. For if they were not just right, then we should not have found ourselves to be here to observe it.”
Wow! Really? All the best physicists and philosophers in the history of the world, and that’s the best they can come up with to explain the absurdly infinitesimal probability of life? As a good friend likes to tell me, “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.”
Jesus performed miracles to establish his bona fides. He also implored us to open our eyes and ears. If you do so, you will find miracles happening all the time all around you. The body that houses your spirit is a walking, talking, breathing miracle. Trillions upon trillions of perfectly timed chemical reactions must happen non-stop for me to write these words and for you to read them.
So I’m not the least bit surprised to find myself heading to Texas to experience yet another miracle in my life. Ok, I’ll admit that the rapture is not likely, but some sort of miraculous insight into life and God awaits me, if I just keep my eyes and ears open. Perhaps I’ll be transported to heaven all by myself in a flash of light. Or, more likely, just keel over of a heart attack. I am 65, the same year my father died suddenly in this manner,
More likely, I’ll just come on back to Mississippi with another fun story to tell. Regardless, the October eclipse will be a perfect prelude to the even bigger event in April.
One more minor but pleasant coincidence. Both eclipses will be in the nicest time to visit Texas. Thanks God!
Both eclipses are “full” eclipses, meaning the moon crosses directly over the sun. However, the fall eclipse is called an “annular” eclipse because the moon will be farther from the earth in its orbital path thus slightly smaller than the sun. This will create an “annulus” around the edge of the moon referred to as “the ring of fire.”
The spring eclipse will be a “total” eclipse. The moon will be closer in its orbital path around the earth so the moon will appear in the sky exactly the size of the sun. Only the corona of the sun will be visible, making it even darker than an annular eclipse.
Which brings me to yet another sign from God to man: Our two main heavenly bodies, the moon and the sun, appear in the sky to be exactly the same size. The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon but it is 400 times farther away. What are the odds of that?
I don’t claim to understand the mind of God, but if I was God and wanted to give man the most obvious possible sign that I was his creator, I would do it with the most obvious things in the world: the sun and the moon. Making them both appear to be the same size seems like a perfect way to achieve this.
So next time you are wondering why we don’t get more modern-day miracles just look up to the sky. If you open your eyes and mind, you will see a sign from God just for you.
