Without a Sound or Word

(Crew Dragon spacecraft approaching the ISS with part of southwestern Turkey – including the coastal city of Demre – in the background.)

¹ The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
…..The skies display his craftsmanship.
² Day after day they continue to speak;
….night after night they make him known.
³ They speak without a sound or word;
….their voice is never heard.
⁴ Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
….and their words to all the world. Psalm 19:1-4 (NLT)

If I would say the names Bob and Doug, what comes to mind? Somewhere along the line, it makes me think that it must be the name of some cartoon on Nickelodeon. But it’s not. They are the names of two pretty famous guys – Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. And unless you are into what they are into, it still might not ring a bell.
Bob and Doug – as NASA control frequently referred to them – are the first two astronauts to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) from United States soil in almost a decade! The final flight of NASA’s Space Shuttle was on July 8th, 2011. Since then, Russia’s Soyuz rocket has been the only vehicle available to do crewed flights to the ISS, and just one seat on the Soyuz runs NASA about $80 million!
Crazy right?!
I watched the historic liftoff of the Crew Dragon that took place on Saturday, May 30^th, 2020. I must admit that I held my breath for those first few moments as I remembered the tragedy that occurred on Tuesday, January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. But for Bob and Doug, it was smooth sailing all the way!
I don’t know what all they had to say about their adventure in getting to the ISS but many astronauts have expressed the awe they experienced at being in space.
It seems that while returning from the historic first landing on the moon 50 years ago, astronaut Buzz Aldrin took part in a TV broadcast the night before splashing down. During the broadcast, the second man to set foot on the moon’s surface read Psalms 8:3-4: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained; What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the Son of Man, that thou visitest him?”
John Glenn told reporters in 1998, just after returning from his final trip to space at age 77, “To look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible. It just strengthens my faith.”
It turns out that the religious faith of these men is not an anomaly. The 29 astronauts who visited the moon during the Apollo program were a generally religious cohort. According to NASA, 23 were Protestant and six Catholic, with a high proportion of them serving as church leaders in their congregations.
The opening lines of Psalm 19 at the beginning of today’s blog, written by King David around 3,000 years ago, communicate the awe he felt in gazing up to the heavens. Those who have been privileged enough to gaze upon God’s creation from the heavens were in awe, as well.
God’s handiwork proclaims His power and majesty…all without saying a word but as David wrote, “their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.”
Regardless of man’s agreement or disagreement, God is glorified by the entirety of His creation and it cannot be silenced. May we add our voice to the great symphony of praise!

June 25^th, 2020, Thurs, 9:33 pm