Tuesday, March 18th, 2025
Last Friday in the early morning, I was one of those people that got up to enjoy the total lunar eclipse. I was up between 1:30 am and 5:00 am taking pictures of both partial and full totality. The fact that this blood moon was happening the same evening as the start of Purim (when the Jews celebrate their deliverance from Haman’s wicked plot) was one that felt like it would be rich in the presence of God. My pastor shared that these two events occur together once every 521 years. That’s once in a few lifetimes.
I saw this opportunity as a chance to fast some sleep and spend some time praying and listening for what God might say. Over the next few blogs, I will share some of my experiences and what God showed me. Creation is one of those things that never ceases to amaze me. Even if God didn’t speak another word, all of creation sings His praises. The way plants grow, how animals survive, and the intricacies of Earth all show us how incredibly smart and able our God is and how deeply He loves us.
The first thing God showed me is that even in the darkness, amazing things are happening. From a spiritual perspective, we have all had times where we have traversed through the valley of the shadow of death. Everything we see with our physical eyes looks hopeless. In the hour leading up to totality, the brightness of the moon was being hidden by Earth. As I looked around my property, everything was getting darker and darker. But then at the peak of totality something amazing happened. Because of our Earth’s atmosphere and the way light rays are bent, the moon took on a reddish glow. This celestial object that was supposed to be in pure darkness was still covered in the blood.
In my times of spiritual darkness, while I had never felt more desperate, I can now recognize that these times of character building were teaching me the importance of being drenched in Jesus’ blood. It’s in these places of darkness where we cling to the Word of God like never before. It’s in these places where we do our best job of stopping and listening for the voice of God. It’s here that He releases revelation that’s just as valuable as the air we breathe. This revelation often becomes the song we sing to rescue someone else out of the same valley.
Final Thoughts…
Once we have gone through a few spiritual valleys we see them in a new light. Instead of fearing them and wondering if we will make it through, we settle in with anticipation to see what God will reveal to us and what He is preparing us for. At a time when I would have usually been sleeping, I was enduring a quite cold, tiring night knowing that I would have some incredible time with God and some memorable pictures. A lot of what we experience in life and our ability to handle it comes down to our perspective. Do we shy away from the hard times in life because we want everything to be easy and comfortable? Or do we embrace the rough waters because we know this is where we will develop the strength and skills to navigate whatever is ahead? The darkness and the light are the same to God. He is working whether it’s day or night. He is working whether we are on the top of a mountain or the bottom of a valley. We must learn to trust His process no matter where it takes us.