Exactly a month from now, on 20th July 2019, we
shall be commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the first moon landing.
Apollo 11 left the Kennedy Space Centre on July 16th, 1969 and on July 20th the lunar module, Eagle, landed in the beautifully named part of the moon designated as The Sea of Tranquillity. Neil Armstrong was the first man out and as he set foot on the lunar surface broadcast those immortal words: One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind. Minutes later Buzz Aldrin joined him and that day they spent two and a quarter hours roaming the surface, collecting forty-eight pounds of rock to bring back for analysis. One of those small fragments is now encased in the Lunar Window at Washington Cathedral. These brave and adventurous astronauts, along with the not to be forgotten Michael Collins, who flew the command module and gave them a lift home, splashed down in the Pacific on July 24th.
Apollo 11 left the Kennedy Space Centre on July 16th, 1969 and on July 20th the lunar module, Eagle, landed in the beautifully named part of the moon designated as The Sea of Tranquillity. Neil Armstrong was the first man out and as he set foot on the lunar surface broadcast those immortal words: One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind. Minutes later Buzz Aldrin joined him and that day they spent two and a quarter hours roaming the surface, collecting forty-eight pounds of rock to bring back for analysis. One of those small fragments is now encased in the Lunar Window at Washington Cathedral. These brave and adventurous astronauts, along with the not to be forgotten Michael Collins, who flew the command module and gave them a lift home, splashed down in the Pacific on July 24th.
I remember watching all this as an eight-year-old and being
transfixed by those fuzzy images as we all gathered around the family TV.
I know it is probably a much-overused metaphor, but we often talk of our pilgrimage through life as a ‘journey’.
The journey to the moon is about 239,000 miles and a bright spark has worked out it would take most car drivers six months to complete the journey!
Yet, maybe the most important journey we make in life is the ‘interior’ one. We are constantly moving on from one phase of our lives to another for nothing stands still very long. Sometimes we fear the change that comes our way whilst at other times we embrace it. What is true for all of us is that ‘the next step’ in life is usually a step into the unknown.
Way back, in 1696, Tate and Brady set the words of Psalm 34 to music and came up with a hymn that urges us to trust in God as our companion and guide. Their words still resonate with me as I consider that interior journey which is as life changing as any lunar landing:
Through all the changing scenes of life,
In trouble and in joy,
The praises of my God shall still
My heart and tongue employ.
I know it is probably a much-overused metaphor, but we often talk of our pilgrimage through life as a ‘journey’.
The journey to the moon is about 239,000 miles and a bright spark has worked out it would take most car drivers six months to complete the journey!
Yet, maybe the most important journey we make in life is the ‘interior’ one. We are constantly moving on from one phase of our lives to another for nothing stands still very long. Sometimes we fear the change that comes our way whilst at other times we embrace it. What is true for all of us is that ‘the next step’ in life is usually a step into the unknown.
Way back, in 1696, Tate and Brady set the words of Psalm 34 to music and came up with a hymn that urges us to trust in God as our companion and guide. Their words still resonate with me as I consider that interior journey which is as life changing as any lunar landing:
Through all the changing scenes of life,
In trouble and in joy,
The praises of my God shall still
My heart and tongue employ.
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