Thinking SPACE
Dear Friends
How appropriate it is that this page is entitled Thinking SPACE. During the month of July, unless you were living in a cave on an isolated mountain, you could not fail to be aware of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings. And if you watched the television programme Eight Days to the Moon and Back, you may have been amazed at what was achieved with what to our 21st century eyes appeared to be very primitive technology. Even though we knew the outcome, we felt the tension as the Eagle’s fuel was running low before a suitable landing place could be identified, and we pondered what could have happened if Michael Collins had had to return to earth alone.
Neil Armstrong looked back at the earth from space, seeing it as a fragile resource in a vast emptiness, and hoping that its inhabitants would care for it, poignant thoughts in these days of warnings about climate change and global warming. He felt that the achievements of Apollo 11 would serve as an inspiration to people to think that they could achieve amazing things, and that nothing was impossible.
The space programme has served to remind us how small and insignificant we are in the incomprehensible vastness of the universe, yet we are still all God’s creatures and can rest in the knowledge that despite our smallness, He knows and cares for each one of us individually.
So as we reflect on the wonders of space and the universe, let us also reflect on the infinite wonder and greatness of God’s love for each and every one of us.
Anne Croasdell
Elder, Grove URC