Space cowboy

As a child, I was fascinated with space and, in particular, space travel. The idea of zipping through the heavens at warp speed on a “top secret” quest to an unknown galaxy far, far away seemed an exhilarating and inherently dangerous endeavor, not knowing who – or more likely what – one might encounter along the way. I recalled such youthful musings this week as NASA launched perhaps its most challenging mission ever: sending the shuttle Atlantis crew into orbit to repair the 19-year-old Hubble Telescope. Without question, the sheer scale of the heavens is beyond our own human capacity to describe, a boundary the most imaginative minds can’t begin to comprehend, much less accurately define. And yet, God knows each solitary star, every tiny little thing (Isaiah 42:5). In the hustle and bustle, we may stop occasionally and glance skyward in amazement at a solar eclipse or a fiery comet and contemplate the possibilities, our instinctive curiosity heightened. With all that available real estate, our minds race as we think to ourselves, there must be other people out there… somewhere (Psalm 46:10). The shuttle program ends next year, and with it, man’s sojourns will cease, at least temporarily. So, although I’ve long since put away my pre-pubescent pondering over inter-planetary expeditions, I won’t stop continuously seeking to get closer to the One who created all that Space in the first place -- and do so while firmly grounded here on earth, in His Word (1 John 2:4-6).