The Path of Totality

Today is April 3, 2024. 

Everybody is so excited about the upcoming total eclipse on April 8, 2024.  In fact, I know a few people who are traveling great distances to be in the path of totality.  Apparently, it is very exciting because the moon will completely block out the light of the sun and, among other things, the temperature is supposed to drop significantly at the time of totality, and in some places across the US, they will be plunged into “darkness at noonday.” The path of totality starts in central America and goes all the way through the US and Canada. The path of totality, or the width of the path, will be 115 miles and the greatest time of total coverage is 4:28 in Torreon, Mexico. 

I find it interesting, (it is reported,) that many people are traveling to many places along the way to be in the path of totality of the eclipse.  I also find it interesting that some people are so determined to see it that they have hired private jets to take them up in the sky to see it from the air! WOW! I don’t know a lot, but I do know that for as long as I have been alive, I have never witnessed such hoopla around a celestial event like this!

There are also strange and wild rumors out there about what will happen as a result of the eclipse.  For some reason, some places have declared a state of emergency and are calling out the National Guard.  Seems a little extreme to be calling the National Guard for something that is innocuous and short term.  We will see.  Note: We live in the Midwest and do not live in the path of totality.  At 1:48 pm we will have 84% coverage at the height of the eclipse. 

I have hardly started and already I have started to digress.

As interesting as I find it all, (I have even marked my calendar for the times of when to look,) I want to get to my thoughts about something else and use the eclipse as a metaphor.  

Today, I had this thought.  I wonder if, in their hurry and urgency to be in the right place at the right time for an event that will only last between 2 and 4 minutes, depending on where they are, if people would make the same extreme efforts to get to the Gospel’s Covenant Path and be in its totality?  The covenant path is not always easy, certainly it is not glamorous, and there is no hoopla and “woo-hoos” that you are there.  No bragging rights.

For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we enter into covenant with God the day we are baptized. We call this the start of the covenant path. From there, we aim to stay on the covenant path through diligence and hard work. We attend to service at Church as well as for people in the church and local community.  We ask for nothing in return. 

We further our commitment to the covenant path by making and keeping other covenants in the Holy Temple.  There, we covenant to be obedient, to serve only God, to live the law of chastity, to sacrifice and to give our whole hearts and souls to God.  It is in the Temple where we embrace God’s covenant path in its totality.  From there, if we will stay true and faithful and endure to the end, we will always be on the covenant path of totality that leads us straight back to the safety and security of our Heavenly home.

It isn’t easy.  You can’t get to the covenant path by car, plane or bus. No, you must be willing to learn, to grow, to give up your sins and weaknesses, to covenant, to sacrifice your desires and will to the will of God who will always know what is good and right for you.  It is a daily and sometimes arduous process with the promised outcome of great blessings and promises for those who endure. There is little hoopla and lots of hard work and learning.  The outcome of which is to be embraced in totality by the light of God and His righteousness. 

This is the totality I want to live in.  This covenant path of totality gives me everything I need to return to a home I have long forgotten by the veil of forgetfulness. This is the covenant path I want to be embraced and protected by.  We will not be blinded by looking to the Son, in fact, we will be given everything we need along the way and we will be given the ability to see more clearly.  All we have to do is to just give Him our hearts.