Tonight, I stood outside and watched the Moon slowly move across the Sun.
This photograph is one I took myself tonight, here in England, during the partial solar eclipse. There was something incredibly peaceful about standing there, looking up at the sky and watching something so extraordinary happen right in front of me.
It immediately brought this Bible verse to my mind:
“For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.”
— Isaiah 13:10
There is something humbling about an eclipse. We know the science behind it — the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun and temporarily blocks the sunlight. But knowing how it happens doesn’t make it any less amazing.
If anything, it makes me appreciate even more the incredible order of God’s creation.
And tonight’s eclipse brought back a childhood memory that I hadn’t thought about in a long time.
I remember being in Romania as a little girl when we had a total solar eclipse. I remember that we had a special plastic banknote that could be used to safely watch the eclipse. I remember being fascinated by it.
I later realised that the memory I had was from 11 August 1999, when Romania experienced a total solar eclipse. The National Bank of Romania had actually issued a special 2,000 lei polymer banknote commemorating the eclipse. The note featured the solar system and the eclipse, and it had special features connected to viewing it.
I was only four years old.
And somehow, that memory stayed with me all these years.
Now, more than 25 years later, I am standing in another country, looking at another eclipse and taking my own photograph, either my little mini me, next to me.
Life really is incredible.
We grow up. We move. We change. We create our own families and our own lives. And then, every now and again, something as simple as looking up at the sky can take us straight back to being a little child again.
Tonight reminded me that some memories don’t disappear. They simply wait quietly inside us until something brings them back.
And perhaps that’s another reason I love looking at the sky.
It reminds me how small we are, how beautiful creation is, and how much there is beyond what we can see every day.
🌙 Have you ever seen a solar eclipse?
And I would especially love to know:
What is your dearest or most unforgettable memory of an eclipse?
Were you a child? Who were you with? Where were you?
CRINAMORPHO 