Like many people, I enjoyed hearing updates about NASA’s Artemis II, which recently completed a 10-day mission around the moon, traveling over 800,000 kilometers. The photos that commander Reid Wiseman took of the earth are stunning! (The one above is titled, “Hello World.”)
I’ve especially loved all the quotes from pilot Victor Glover, who used the mission to share about his faith, saying, “We need Jesus, whether on Earth or circling the moon.” (Check out this touching video of Glover greeting a young girl with Down Syndrome.)
Astronomy has been an interest for me since my childhood. Years before I came to know Christ, I was outside every clear night looking through a telescope. I was fascinated by what I read about the violent collisions of galaxies, explosions of stars, and implosions into neutron stars and black holes. My love for the wonders of the universe helped prepare me to hear the gospel and respond to Christ.
The universe is vast, yet God is said to have created it with His fingers. Effortless. No big thing. “He made the stars also” (Genesis 1:14), like a universe 150 billion light years across. If we could wrap our minds around the vastness of creation, it might make us think that it is small, and we are bigger than we are. The truth is that creation is incomprehensibly vast, and we are indeed very small. “The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” (Psalm 33:6,8, NLT).
There’s something in the human heart that responds with wonder to the heavens above us, and is moved to worship the Creator. I appreciate what Joe Carter writes in this article for The Gospel Coalition:
The Heavens Are Still Declaring—and Not Just to Astronauts
Most Christians would likely struggle if, out of the blue, someone asked them to share a message about Easter Sunday. But Victor Glover was put on the spot while 250,000 miles from home and with the whole Earth listening.
“I don’t have anything prepared,” said the unflappable former Navy test pilot and NASA’s current Artemis II pilot. “I’m glad you brought that up, though; I think these observances are important.”
“I think that for me one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing,” he added. “And you know when I read the Bible, and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created—it’s . . . you have this amazing place, this spaceship.”
“You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe,” Glover said.
“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you—just trust me—you are special. In all of this emptiness—this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe—you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together,” he said, referring to Earth.
“I think, as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about, you know, all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we’ve gotta get through this together.”
Glover was responding to a question from a reporter who mentioned the Christmas message delivered by the astronauts from NASA’s Apollo 8 mission. During that 1968 mission, about one in four people on the planet watched the video transmission from space on television.
Two years ago, I had the pleasure of getting to know astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who like Victor Glover, loves Jesus. (You can view Shane’s Instagram, where he shows some incredible photos and videos he’s taken in space, like this one.) We spoke together at a gathering for illumiNations, a collaboration between a dozen or so Bible translation agencies to help provide God’s Word in every language in our lifetime. Shane and I were asked to have a joint conversation with Bobby Gruenewald (founder of the YouVersion Bible app). The brother who set up our session together said to me, “Shane is a guy who’s been to the heavens, and you’re a guy who’s written about Heaven, so let’s put you together.” We had a great time talking about the New Earth, the view from space, and more. Watch our interview together here.
