From NASA.
I just spent the last half hour perusing NASA’s database of outerspace pictures. And I find myself on my knees.
Here are two locations to begin. If you find others, please share.
NASA.
When I was a kid, around the fourth grade, I had my mother awaken me early and let me skip school to watch John Glenn’s mission — three orbits followed by a splashdown.
I remember Apollo XIII (and loved the movie).
There’s just something about outer space that has held a special fascination for me since my earliest years. I think it’s getting to glimpse another part of God’s self-revelation. Yep — it’s getting to see God.
The picture isn’t, of course, the literal hand of God. But you can see God there just as you can see Rembrandt in his paintings and Frank Lloyd Wright in his buildings. The art reveals the artist.
I was hoping, as a fourth grader, not to be too old to go to the moon. It turned out that I was too young. I’d love to go, but until we have inter-planetary cruise lines, looking at someone else’s pictures is a pretty good substitute.
Awesome!.
“From God, through God, and to God, are all things.”
Jay, you being older may just allow you to go much further, sooner. How far is HEAVEN?
I’ve always been fascinated with the outlines and drawings of outerspace in caves and on stone tablets and stone columns that we couldn’t see even with our telescopes. Until recently when they were discovered to be accurate by pictures taken by our space traveling machines that are still traveling way out there. How did the people of old know this and why did they draw it?
We have a lot to learn.
I have two such pictures hanging in my office to remind me of the awesome power of God. Pictures like this touch me in a way that very little other things do, and they convince me that on God’s scale of things, we are terribly, terribly small.
But God seems to care about us small things anyway.
My Mother passed away at age 84 7 years ago. When she was 82, I had her get on a clunky old Apple Computer and look at some of the pictures from the Hubble telescope that NASA had made available. I reminded her that she had a grandson who worked for NASA and that this one of the products of his life work. But honestly, I shouldn’t have been so eager for her to look at this on an old computer when she couldn’t quite grasp how a mouse works. She was only 2 years away from seeing it all up close and personal. I know she is enjoying the view. But I am so grateful that I have lived in an age where these views are available. It is such a faith builder for me. Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, indeed.