April 2026

The recent Artemis II excursion around the moon and back continues to a amaze us. We reflect on both the science of propulsion and the gifts of God in the universe.

May you be blessed by the Lord,

The maker of heaven and earth.

The heavens belong to the Lord

But to us he has given the earth.

We really can't say that the Artemis II astronauts trod the heavens of the Lord, but they have had a more lambent experience of those heavens than we resident earthlings who seldom venture far from our familiar terrain. 

Is anyone else besides me struck with awe, seeing the photos of the heavens? Can anyone even imagine what it would be like to float around in the heavens?

Our Creator God has given us the earth. Recently, four humans left the gifted earth in a NASA moon mission, packed themselves into a 10'x16' capsule-room, and made multiple moon and earth flybys, in the heavens which belong to the Lord.

The above Psalm (Ps. 115:15-16) comes around in Lauds every liturgical cycle. It lifts the heart in gratitude and awe for this wonderful cosmos – including planets, galaxies, and stars - in which we live.

Once again after witnessing the astronauts' grand journey around the moon and again around the earth am I continually spellbound. I marvel at the sight of the earth sitting relaxedly upon the moon, the photo which was captured from Artemis II.

The PBS Nova program April 15 (link below) helped to explain some of the physics of the space shuttle event: tons of hydrogen gas exploding the shuttle engines to lift off and return the capsule Orion and the astronauts safely to earth.

I marvel at how NASA's GPS got them to land in a specific spot in the Pacific Ocean, when my GPS couldn't even get me to my cousin's wedding.

Of all the awe we experienced, the crew described an ineffable sense of the "overview effect." It is said that "the overview effect is a cognitive shift reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. Researchers have characterized the effect as 'a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus.'"

I marvel at science and God's gifts of the heavens and the earth. Next time I tell someone I love them to the moon and back, I hope they know that that is really a whole lot. 

--Jan

“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.” 1 Samuel 2:8

I stumbled across a website where several professional photographers were asked to discuss images taken by the Artemis II astronauts. Commenting on the photo above, Jeremy Gray wrote that, although the photo was not as “visually stunning” as some others from the mission, this image still spoke powerfully to him:

 “With the exceedingly rare exception of astronauts, every person who has ever lived … spent every second of their life squarely planted on this floating ball of rock and water, just like everyone they ever loved, hated, and never knew at all. There is no stronger thread that ties us all together than our shared home, and there it is, right there, somehow spectacular and entirely unremarkable all at once.”

There it is, spectacular! The ancient Israelites expressed their wonder about the earth by declaring that God had set the entire world on sturdy pillars. Is it not even more spectacular to know that all the beauty and joy and dreams of human life are set on this floating ball, seemingly adrift in the cosmos? This gorgeous planet is a wondrous gift!

Speaking from space, astronaut Victor Glover said, “When I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, … 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, in the cosmos.” 

“You are special in all of this emptiness,” Glover continued. “This is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe. You have this oasis, this beautiful place [where] we get to exist together.” 

We have this beautiful place, this wondrous earth, entrusted to us by God! And we are all, every one of us, called to be wise stewards of this, our shared home.

--by Bill

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