When the Sky Went Dark Over Dallas

On April 8, 2024, millions of Americans stopped everything to stare at the sky. In Dallas, Texas, traffic ground to a halt. Office workers spilled onto sidewalks. Children clutched their eclipse glasses and tilted their heads upward.

Then totality hit. The temperature dropped. Birds went silent. Streetlights flickered on at 1:40 in the afternoon. And across a city of 1.3 million people, something remarkable happened — a collective gasp, then silence. Some wept. Others grabbed the hand of the stranger standing next to them. For three minutes and fifty-two seconds, no one checked their phone.

Every skyscraper, every stock ticker, every piece of human technology — all of it suddenly felt small beneath a sky that reminded us we are not in charge.

Then the light returned. And the cheering — the cheering. Joy erupted from people who moments before had stood trembling in unexpected darkness.

The psalmist knew this feeling. "The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad," he wrote. "Clouds and thick darkness surround Him." Psalm 97 describes a God so magnificent that mountains melt like wax in His presence and lightning lights up the world — yet light dawns for the righteous, and joy comes to the upright in heart. The same power that makes the earth tremble is the power that guards the lives of His faithful ones. The Almighty who commands the heavens is the same God who fills His people with gladness.