Grandma and the Solar Eclipse 99 Years Ago

       My grandmother’s fascination with solar eclipses stemmed from her experience early in her life.  I never asked Grandma, Gladys Vivian Rainey Smith, a specific date. History indicated one of the more noteworthy solar eclipses in Oklahoma occurred on June 8, 1918.  The site, timeanddate.com, recorded the total eclipse was visible from around 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with its maximum effect being at 6:30 p.m.

My maternal grandma, Gladys Vivian
Rainey, about a year before the
total eclipse of June 8, 1918

Map of the Path of the Total Solar Eclipse on
June 8, 1918 - taken from NationalEclipse.com

       Grandma told of how in the brilliance of the day the landscape became as if it was dusk. The sounds of a summer night began to be heard all around her. Her mother’s hens went into the chicken house and automatically climbed onto the roosts as if preparing for nightfall.

       Grandma’s experience with the significant eclipse during her late teens was recounted usually when we read Matthew 27:45-46:

Then from midday until three o’clock darkness spread over the whole countryside,

 and then Jesus cried with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why did you forsake me?” (Phillips)

And then we compared the companion section in the Gospel of Mark and this passage in Luke 23:44-45:

It was now about midday, but darkness came over the whole countryside until three in the afternoon,

 for there was an eclipse of the sun. The veil in the Temple sanctuary was split in two.

Then Jesus gave a great cry and said, “Father, I commend my spirit into your hands.”

And with these words, he died. (Phillips)

       Grandma explained that when Jesus took the sin of the world upon Himself, God could not look on our sin that He bore in His body on the cross. (II Corinthians 5:21) She articulated that the death of Jesus coincided with the end of the darkness upon the area around Jerusalem. She often turned to one of her favorite chapters in Isaiah and read Isaiah 53:12:

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

And was numbered with the transgressors.

For He bore the sin of many,

And made intercession for the transgressors.

       These memories of the past will be in my mind, on August 21, if weather permits my viewing the effects of the solar eclipse. I’ll be thinking of Grandma’s excitement over this unusual natural phenomenon over 99 years ago.

Thank You, Jesus, that You endured the darkest day in all the history of the world with all the horrendous sin of ours weighing on You during Your most excruciating pain so we could experience the peace of being forgiven and the gift of Your  enabling power to live purposefully every day.