Tinsley: Back to the moon?

On January 8 the first lunar rocket since 1972 was launched from the United States at Cape Canaveral, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It is an unmanned, robotic, mission. Only the US has ever landed a man on the moon and that was over 50 years ago. This could be the year we return. NASA hopes to launch the first manned mission to the moon in November and hopes not just to visit, but to live there by the end of the decade. China hopes to have humans living on the moon by 2040.

I remember those first manned missions, launched long before personal PCs, smartphones and the internet were thought of. By today’s standards that world looks archaic. But the accomplishments by NASA and a group of astronauts with the “right stuff” is still impressive.

My wife and I married on December 21, 1968, the day Apollo 8 was launched to carry the first men to orbit the moon. They reached the moon three days later. On Christmas Eve, just before they disappeared to the other side of the moon and lost radio contact with the earth, Borman and his crew read the Genesis account of creation. (Genesis 1:1-10). In the distance the earth appeared as a fragile planet on the moon’s horizon. Six and a half months later, we sat in front of our black-and-white TV and watched Neil Armstrong leap from the last rung of the lander to take “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” On board the lander, while they waited, Buzz Aldrin observed Christian communion.

James Irwin served as the commander and pilot for the lunar lander on Apollo 15. He became the eighth astronaut to step foot on the moon. After his return Irwin founded the High Flight Foundation as a non-denominational evangelical organization based in Colorado Springs. He said, “Some people make light of it and ask. ‘How can a technical person, an astronaut, believe in the Bible?’ I guess I also was a skeptic in my early days, but I have come to believe what the Bible says as being true.”

The last man to walk on the moon was Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972. As he departed the moon he said, “We leave as we came, and God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” Cernan later described his experience. “I felt the world was just too beautiful to have happened by accident. There has to be something bigger than you and bigger than me. … There has to be a Creator of the universe ... .”

I do not doubt that God welcomes us to explore His universe, to experience the majesty and mystery of the moon and beyond. But, when we do, it is important that we do so with the humility and faith demonstrated by these men who accomplished what no one has been able to do since.

The Scripture says, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,the moon and the stars, which You have set in place; what is man that You think of him,and a son of man that You are concerned about him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You have him rule over the works of Your hands; You have put everything under his feet, ... Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:3-9).

Bill Tinsley reflects on current events and life experience from a faith perspective. Visit www.tinsleycenter.com. Email bill@tinsleycenter.com

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Tinsley: Back to the moon?