After a Holy Week infused with the theopoetics of singer/songwriter Chris Cornell, it seems that he has something more to say on the eve of the 2024 total solar eclipse. Melody and lyrics for Black Hole Sun came to him in a flash and in totality– maybe we could even call it a creative encounter with the Divine. His band, Soundgarden, released this song in 1994, and ever since then I’ve wondered what a black hole sun actually is.
A total solar eclipse is not technically a black hole sun, but to look at it during its totality–it might seem like there is a dark spot, or a black circular hole, where there should be a sun. A black hole that renders the sun unable to fully cover the world in its warmth and light. It might even feel like an ominous, cold, and dark cosmic event has settled over us– neath the black, the sky looks dead.
We get so far ahead of ourselves thinking we know the outcome of our story and of this world. We are deeply impacted by things out of the ordinary, unknown, and chaotic. Instead of embracing the holy mystery of life–we live in fear, sleepwalk, focus on the negative, try to control outcomes, become indisposed, wear masks and disguises no one knows. And we doubt like Thomas.
We tell the creation story in Genesis and our own stories as if they are one and done. Yet, God is still creating the heavens and the earth as if it is the first day of our creation story! We know this to be true when we peer inside the empty tomb, see flowers rising up through the soil, and trees bearing new leaves in the springtime… and now we know it to be true in space too!
Thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, it’s possible to explore space in new and wondrous ways. Recent video shows a new kind of black hole. The discovery of this black hole reveals something very important about our Creator and ongoing creation. Rather than our traditional understanding of black holes as exploded suns who gobble up everything in sight, this black hole functions by gathering cosmic gases into it. Instead of eating up stars– it leaves an enormous trail of newborn baby stars in its wake!
The cosmos is alive and reverberating with divine mystery. Holy whispers (or shouts) are calling your name continually. Divine breath is moving in and through all of life! God is still creating as if it is the first day! The question is, reader…can you hear it? Can you see it? Can you feel it?
Thanks be to God for hope in new life!
So yes, black hole sun that leaves a trail of baby stars behind it- won’t you come!
Black Hole Sun
In my eyes
Indisposed
In disguises no one knows
Hides the face
Lies the snake
And the sun in my disgrace
Boiling heat
Summer stench
Neath the black, the sky looks dead
Call my name
Through the cream
And I'll hear you scream againBlack hole sun
Won't you come
And wash away the rain?
Black hole sun
Won't you come
Won't you come
Won't you comeStuttering
Cold and damp
Steal the warm wind, tired friend
Times are gone
For honest men
Sometimes, far too long for snakes
In my shoes
Walking sleep
In my youth, I pray to keep
Heaven send
Hell away
No one sings like you anymoreBlack hole sun
Won't you come
And wash away the rain?
Black hole sun
Won't you come
Won't you comeHang my head
Drown my fear
Till you all just disappearBlack hole sun
Won't you come
And wash away the rain?
Black hole sun
Won't you come
Won't you come
So love . . . “God is still creating as if the first day.”
Beautiful reflection!