EDITOR’S NOTE — Retired pastor Darryl Wood posts his blog, “A Personal Word from a Retread Pastor,” on Facebook each week. In this post, he writes about space exploration, so we’ve collected some articles about astronauts and their testimonies of faith. See the links below the article. And read more blog posts from Darryl Wood by clicking here.)
Splashdown
By Darryl Wood
“A Personal Word from a Retread Pastor”
After 45 years, astronauts landed in the drink again.
It was the first ever Gulf of Mexico space capsule landing. The event garnered lots of news coverage.
As in the old days, viewers held their breaths as the flying/floating Tesla descended.
Then a sigh of relief as the thing plopped in and bobbed in the Gulf.
What does the Lord think about the renewed hullabaloo regarding space exploration?
Possibly Psalm 8 gives a clue: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars, which You have ordained. …” (v. 3).
The psalmist believed the Lord wanted humans to “consider [His] heavens.”
Astronauts do just that. Some profess faith in God.
Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis. Buzz Aldrin took communion. Jim Irwin became an evangelist in his post-space days. Tammy Jernigan gave a testimony from space. Shannon Lucid took a minister’s sermon to the Russians on the Mir space station.
John Glenn’s observation says it all: “To look up out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible.”
Surely the Lord approves of humans learning all we can about His creation. He might say, “Go ahead, find out all you can about Me and My universe, and you will know Me better. And I am pleased by that.”
God wants to be known. Splashdown in the knowledge of His marvelous work. No life vest needed. He’s a rescuer.
Read more about astronauts and their faith lives in these articles:
“Astronauts’ faith isn’t lost in space,” Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 7, 1998
“Buzz Aldrin Took Holy Communion on the Moon. NASA Kept it Quiet,” History.com, July 31, 2018
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