On Christmas Eve of December 24th, 1968, the American people and
all the world were treated to one of the grandest, most unusual
Christmas gifts ever to be given to man. It was a season to be
proud that we are Americans when our American astronauts, the first
to make the hazardous voyage in a tiny space ship around the dark
side of the Moon, delivered the Genesis story of God’s creation
Christmas trees awaiting the visit of old St. Nick.
For a long time the Bible story of the Creation has been rather
ignored, almost in the same light as a fairy tale or fable. Yet
here were the bravest, foremost adventurers of the new Space Age of
Exploration, steering, much like Columbus in a darker age, their
tiny heavenly bark on the longest, most hazardous voyage man has
ever dared to venture forth on into the vast unknown of the
universe. These were men of science the highest echelon yet to them
the Bible story of the Creation seemed to be the most suitable
answer to the awesome, enigmatic spectacle that was unfolding for
the first time before human eyes.
The drab and dreary Moonscapes, ugly-pocked with numerous
meteorite craters, the vast, dry and uninviting mares or Moon seas,
the endless, uninhabited deserts of utter nothingness were passing
below them. Truly the Moon was no place to live, a mere orb of
colorless gray, like dirty beach sand or plaster, suitable for only
what God had intended it a reflector of the sun’s rays giving
forth soft light to the earth and man at night. The darkness around
them was appalling. To them the good Earth looked like an emerald a
floating jewel of beauty, a place full of goodness for man. All the
sordid stories about man’s wickedness, the perpetual warfare,
the riots, the race prejudice, the griping and bitterness of earth
men was all forgotten in the splendor of it all.
‘God created the heaven and the earth and called them good.
God created the light and separated it from the darkness and called
it good.’ Our astronauts spoke with conviction as they read the
Bible story of the Creation, word for word, honoring God for
permitting them success in their grandest adventure. The first
humans to ever reach the Moon were Americans, and they chose to
preach the first sermon ever delivered from the Moon which they
used as a pulpit to remind the world below of the Glory of God on
the very Eve of Christmas when, two thousand years before, God gave
the world His greatest gift a Savior that men might have life more
abundantly.
It was all so symbolic, so fitting that our fellow Americans
should do this. Though sending the Moon rocket around the Moon cost
some thirty-two millions of dollars, everyone in our land was
afforded a view of the grandest spectacle man ever ventured forth
to explore. It was the cheapest tax money we’d ever spent. It
won more good will for America than all the wars we ever have
fought throughout history. It might even have prevented some
battles in the future, were we only wise enough to know it. The few
cents each will have to pay personally out of his pocket to finance
the grand adventure will not be begrudged, simply because at that
it was much cheaper than box office charges for many a shabby show
we’ve been known to endure.
Once again we can be proud to be Americans. We can rejoice that
our men had faith in the God of Creation sufficient to honor Him
and credit Him with the glory that is His on the very eve when our
thoughts should always honor Him in thanksgiving and praise. It was
as if the Americans dedicated the Moon to God not unlike the early
explorers carrying crosses into the vast wildernesses of our
American continent centuries before.
Thank God for America and thank America for renewing the
world’s faith in God as creator of both the Moon and the good,
good Earth.
Had the Russians beaten us there, they’d have capped their
triumph by proclaiming, ‘We don’t see God.’
What a miserable Christmas Eve that would have been. Thank God
it wasn’t!
Amen
