Yesterday, we were able to go up to our local country park, stand atop a hill and watch the partial solar eclipse unfold. Like most the country, we cottoned on to it happening a little too late and, as we went to get some suitable glasses to watch it, realised everywhere had sold out. Amazon would not deliver in time. Could we just watch it with sunglasses on? Maybe just looking straight at it wouldn’t be so bad?
We went up to where we were going to view it, but it became clear the sun was too powerful to view with the naked eye. Even with sunglasses on, with the moon almost entirely obscuring the sun save for a little sliver, it was still incredibly light around us and even to look in its direction for less than a second was too much.
Some folks who had been far more organised than us kindly lent us their eclipse glasses. As soon as we put them on, the tint was so dark we could see nothing around us, but we could see clearly the outline of the moon and the little sliver of sunlight still just visible. To the naked eye, the sun was still essentially out and shining. It was perhaps a little darker, but ultimately still incredibly light. With the glasses on, you could see just how tiny a fraction of the sun was actually visible. Its power is immense!
It was impossible not to think of the holiness of God as we looked. Too bright and utterly damaging for any human being to look on. Even the tiniest sliver of God’s holiness would be too damaging for us. There is no way we can look directly upon, just as we couldn’t look directly at the sun. It is far too powerful and dangerous for us.
The only way we could look at the sun is to don the special, eclipse-grade glasses. Even my sunglasses, with all their UV protection, were not nearly good enough. But the eclipse glasses made it possible for us to look at the eclipse as it happened. It darkened the rest of the world to us so that we were able to see the brilliance of the sun without damaging ourselves.
In a similar way, Jesus is our eclipse-glasses when it comes to the holiness of God. Just as we are, the holiness of God will do nothing but damage us – it is too dangerous for us to behold. But in Christ, we are able to be in the presence of God, we will one day be able to see his glory as it really is, without damage or danger. It is too much for us in ourselves, but with Christ covering us, the damage it avoided and we can see holiness of God.