WHAT THE ASTRONAUT COVERED WITH HIS THUMB

I have always been a fan of the various programs which are part and parcel of America’s venture into space.

The Explorer and Voyager Interplanetary missions, The Mercury Program, The Gemini Program, The Apollo Program, the space shuttle, the International Space Station, the Mars rovers and the future colonization of this and other planets.

Of course, I was watching television when Apollo 8 lifted off from the cape on top of the 36 story Saturn V rocket; still the most powerful machine in the history of mankind on this planet.

Apollo 8 preceded the better known Apollo 11 in which man first set foot on the moon, and was designed to orbit that celestial body for the first time.

At the end of three days, the spacecraft had journeyed a quarter million miles and entered lunar orbit, and Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders gazed in awe at the craters of the moon as they whizzed past their small window. Suddenly, an unexpected spectacle appeared in the lens of the video camera one of the astronauts was holding.

As “Mr. Rochester” said about the sun in the novel and movie, “Jane Eyre” and which might just as easily have applied to the earth, as the three astronauts gazed out at it in abject awe,

“She’s rising!”

Bill Anders almost involuntarily pressed his right thumb against the window and discovered that he could cover the entire earth with this one digit of his hand.

And he thought,

“I have done something no human being has ever done since God breathed man into existence. I have covered the world and its 5 billion inhabitants, along with everything I count near and dear… with my thumb.”

Pt. 2

“The true Light who lights every man who would ever be born on the earth.” (John 1:9)

A scripture taken from the fourth Gospel of the New Testament which stakes the claim that Jesus was sent to woo each and every man, woman and child who would ever live and move and breathe on the earth to Himself.

And since I have been referring to the topic of outer space allow me to provide a personal conjecture here which I never heard in a sermon, nor read in a book.

There’s not a word in scripture which infers Jesus ever made His way to any other planet…except earth. There’s not a word in scripture which infers that God ever made anything comparable to a human being and put them on any other planet. And there’s not a word in scripture which makes the claim that anything comparable to a human being on any other planet sinned and needed saving.

And it occurs to me that had God created anything comparable to a human being and put them on another planet, they, like our first father and mother, would have at some point sinned, (since I presume Satan would have had access to them) and would have needed saving.

However, to continued my premise, notice the implication of the following scripture.

When Christ died, He died only once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. (Romans 6:10)

Christ died once to atone for the sins of mankind. It seems apparent to me that had there been life on another world they would have sinned and would have needed saving, and yet we are told that…Christ died only once to break the power of sin.

Pt. 3

“I have done something no human being has ever done since God breathed man into existence. I have covered the world and its 5 billion inhabitants, along with everything I count near and dear… with my thumb.”

An amazing proposition

Approximately 100 billion human beings, living and dead, whom God created and placed on a comparatively miniscule planet in a comparatively miniscule solar system and orbiting a comparatively miniscule star in a comparatively miniscule galaxy in a universe which contains billions of planets and stars and galaxies.

And yet, for the amazing size of the universe and the myriad of planets and stars and galaxies, we have been assured that…

“God so loved…the world.” (John 3:16)

While the Book of Genesis informs us that God created the sun and the moon and the earth, almost as an afterthought we are told that…

“He made the stars also.” (Gen. 1:16)

There is not a word in scripture about His amazing love for any other living entity among everything He created, except those whom He created, and placed…on the earth.

Every shepherd, every carpenter, every stone mason, every poet, every housewife, every beggar, every king, every queen, every saint, every infidel, every man, woman and child.

That photograph of the earthrise remains the most famous likeness of the world upon which we live which has ever been captured on film. A circular sphere with a circumference of about 25,000 miles. The browns and greens of the land. The blues of the oceans. The whites of the clouds.

And all those infinitesimally small billions of human beings which the astronaut could not hope to see from his vantage point in space.

Pt. 4

That obscure little planet which God hung 93 million miles from an obscure little sun and a quarter million miles from an obscure little moon, and which an astronaut was able to cover with the tip of his thumb.

And yet, the King of kings and Lord of lords made the decision to not only populate one among the billions of planets he created, but to choose those multiplied billions of human beings for Himself. As the Creator assures us in the scripture,

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” (John 15:16)

Amazing to think that God created billions of planets among the billions of stars and galaxies, and yet made the decision to populate…only one of them.

I believe this is the implication of God’s Word.

“For God so loved…the world.”

And how much did He love the world which He created?

He never loved us as a huge, impersonal conglomeration of human beings,…but as individuals. For He spoke to each of us as individuals when He said,

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

(I dare you to replace the fourth word of the foregoing scripture with your name; for this is exactly what God meant by the wording).

It has been said that,

“If in the entire history of the world only you, one lonely individual, had sinned and needed saving Christ would have still come to this earth, and allowed Himself to be nailed on a cross in your place.”

I think a man named John Eldridge said it as well as it has ever been said in his book, “Captivating” when he wrote,

“You’ve heard that in the heart of every man, woman and child is a space that only God can fill. But did you realize that in the heart of God, Himself is a space that only (insert your name) can fill.”

I think the foregoing affirmation casts a whole new light on what the astronaut covered with his thumb!

by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright Pending

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