It doesn’t matter how much I plan ahead for the upcoming school year, summer always seems to come to an abrupt end. However, as much as we ALL love the laid back days of summer, I must say that the school year does bring a welcome routine and daily sense of accomplishment.

We said goodbye to summer last Monday:

Derek: 11th grade
Peter: 8th grade
Jeremy: 6th grade
Ruth: 2nd grade
The Air Force flag is in the background, paying homage to Jake in his sophomore year of college.

The sun and the moon celebrated our first day of school with us by putting on a unique display. We thought we would miss the eclipse completely because the clouds were thick all day. Knowing the eclipse was scheduled to happen at 1:18, we sat down to lunch and lamented over the cloud cover preventing us from seeing the much-hyped phenomenon. Then suddenly we saw a slight break in the clouds just after 1:00, so we quickly pulled out Jake’s telescope with the sun filter and pointed it toward the sun..

For just a couple short minutes, we were able to gaze at the moon-covered sun while the clouds peeled back.

What I find almost just as amazing as the eclipse itself is the fact that scientists are able to predict the date, time, and location of such a wonder. As Albert Mohler put it:

This is where Christians understand, for just one example, that the predictability of this kind of eclipse is only made possible because God to his glory fine-tuned the universe in such a way that there are predictable laws and principles whereby the movement of celestial and heavenly bodies can not only be measured, but also predicted.

It was a memorable way to celebrate the end of our summer break and beginning of the school year!