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Day 21 – Saturday of the third week of Advent – “The Earth Below”

A friend of mine gave me a book about the early American space flights beginning with Alan Shepherd in the Mercury 7 through the first moon landing on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong along with Buzz Aldrin brought their capsule “the Eagle” to settle on the surface of this strange alien piece of rock that circles our planet. 

In between these two space adventures came many different trial runs.  It was Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, and the crew of Apollo 8, became the first humans to travel to the Moon.

As they circled the moon on that Christmas Eve, the three astronauts – Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman each read from the Book of Genesis as the world watched their journey on a live television broadcast.  The transcript was this:

Bill Anders spoke first…

We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Next Jim Lovell took over…

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

The third astronaut Frank Borman spoke last…

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the seas: and God saw that it was good.

Borman concluded the reading with his words:  “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”

It was 1968 and I was a 19-year-old freshman in college.  That year had been tumultuous in America.  Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.  The Democratic National Convention had been attacked by rioters protesting the War in Vietnam.  Race riots broke out in many large cities in America. 

Nasa gave Frank Borman, the leader of Apollo 8 permission to say something to the watching world, without qualifying what he would say.  As they orbited the moon Commander Lovell said, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth”.[1]

Advent reminds us that our world and our lives are worthwhile.  We have a God who “so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him might have eternal life”.

Advent reminds us that it is only in God that real peace can be found.  May He bless you with His Peace that might fill in all of the troubled spaces within.

Peace


[1] From the book “Moon Shot”, page 232

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