April 28, 2014
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained: what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Psalm 8:3, 4
In a wrap up of “oddball” bills awaiting action by Congress, Richard Simon of the Los Angeles Times mentions one of particular interest to me: a measure that would establish the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites National Historical Park. This act calls for setting aside the moon areas where Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts trod, to protect the surface from “spacefaring commercial entities and foreign nations,” says the proposal’s chief sponsor, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.).
The bill, which has yet to get a hearing, has elicited some…interesting reactions, as you might expect. “We don’t own the moon!” cried the Congressional Western Caucus. Citizens Against Government Waste noted that Edwards and her co-sponsor, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) “have gone where no member of Congress has gone before.”
(And then there are the conspiracy theories that claim we’ve never sent anyone to the moon…)
Nope, we don’t own the moon, or the planets, sun and constellations either, for that matter. But God does. He made each one and set them in place. Scripture says He knows the exact number of stars and even gave them names (Isaiah 40:26).
Even more incredible is that He knows each one of us thoroughly, all our thoughts, words and actions (Psalm 139: 1-18). But it’s not a negative knowledge, David the psalmist explains—it’s an expression of how great God is and how puny our minds are in comparison (v. 6), and wisdom to keep us from harm (vv. 23, 24). The sky, David declares, is a silent witness to God’s amazing creativity and love (Psalm 19:1-3, Romans 1:20).
We may never have a park on the moon, or if by some extraordinary chance it did come to pass, most of us would never have the means to visit. But a mere upward glance, day or night, reveals an earthly truth, accessible to all, far surpassing anything this world (or another) has to offer.
P.S. My blog has a new look because of changes by WordPress, the software I use for my blog. Hope you like it!