Artwork by Michaela Steininger
I have always been a bit of a space geek. Since I was a little kid, I have been enthralled with the moon mission and all that it took for the astronauts to make President Kennedy’s proclamation in 1962 a reality,
"We choose to go to the Moon not because it is easy but because it is hard.”
Seven years later in July of 1969 three astronauts, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins were on their way to the moon as part of the Apollo 11 space mission. For Collins this was his second mission in space. Little did he know that it would be his last. As the Command Module Pilot, Collins would remain in the module and make 18 lunar orbits while Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the moon.
The interesting aspect of each lunar orbit is that as the command module drifted behind the moon, for 47 minutes Collins had zero contact with the known world. Reflecting on this period of utter solitude, he wrote:
“This venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two. I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side”.
At his furthest point on the dark side of the moon, Collins was over 2200 miles from the closest human. It has been said that, “Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins experienced.”
We don’t have to be on the far side of the moon to feel thousands of miles away from people or from God. This is what makes the Christmas story all the more powerful. God, in recognizing the divide that occurred when sin entered our world, sent his Son Jesus on a mission. A mission that Max Lucado captures in his book “God Came Near.”
“He came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. God tapped humanity on its collective shoulder, "Pardon me," he said, and eternity interrupted time, divinity interrupted carnality, and heaven interrupted the earth in the form of a baby.”
This was a mission that wouldn’t just bring mankind back into a right relationship with him, but one that would also provide comfort to those who are lonely, who are separated, who are marginalized. This is why we celebrate what the prophet Isaiah shared 700 years before the birth of Christ;
“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and she will call Him Immanuel.”
Immanuel…God with us!