Re-Entry and Splashdown!

It has been an exciting month for space enthusiasts! (Moi included!). The Artemis 1 unmanned moon mission concluded on Sunday, December 11 with re-entry of the Orion space capsule and its splashdown and recovery after more than three-weeks. The mission, to and from, including a wide-swooping loop around the moon after 1.4 million miles, was epic. The images taken by the spacecraft cameras have been breathtaking and vivid! Borrowing an exclamation from the Star Trek television series, this mission into deep space (like the fictional Starship Enterprise) promises to take us in the future to distances beyond the moon “where no man has gone before!”

"When I consider Your heavens...the moon
and the stars... What is man that You are mindful
 of him... that You visit him?" (Ps. 8:3-4).
(Photo Credit: NASA)

The 25,000-mph re-entry into earth’s atmosphere exposed Orion’s newly advanced heatshield to temperatures of more than 5000 degrees Fahrenheit. This shield had never been tested before in actual spaceflight. To add further drama, NASA scientists programmed the spacecraft to momentarily skip out of earth’s atmosphere during its return to reduce G-force loads and to pinpoint its landing. All maneuvers were reported to be spectacularly successful! The splashdown into the Pacific Ocean near Baja, California came at exactly the planned time of 11:40am, CST.

There are sure to be many memorable accomplishments in the years to come as men and women explore the moon. The Artemis II mission is projected to launch some time in 2024 with astronauts aboard who will, on this occasion, orbit around the moon. Manned lunar landings will be scheduled thereafter. I am delightfully dizzy thinking about all the possibilities!

The Blue Marble (Photo: Public Domain)

Christmas is a season of excited anticipation! Advent services have been building to the important moment on Christmas Eve when believers will exclaim and celebrate, Emmanuel, God with Us! The focal point of our worship has been on the Coming of the Christ-Child. We learn that Incarnation, God entering human flesh in Jesus Christ, was an intentional and carefully planned event in history. Paul says the scheduling was so perfectly precise that “when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us…” (Galatians 4:4-5a, NLT)

This baby we celebrate came at the exact time when Caesar Augustus was the Roman emperor. Bethlehem would be the exact place of Christ’s entry. A humble cave barn with a feed trough for his bassinet would be the specific landing site. Mary and Joseph would be the chosen instruments to love, protect, and nurture God’s One and Only Son. None of this was random or by chance, but rather... a Master Plan to save the world!

If a spaceflight could be regarded as spectacularly successful by man, how infinitely more impressive is the strategic way God demonstrated His love and executed His plan to transform human hearts through a baby. This infant, Christ, the Lord, will grow up one day to give His life on a cross that makes possible our forgiveness from sin. Oh, how words fail to adequately praise God “for His indescribable Gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). What grace! What a Savior!

Merry Christmas!

Mike Keppler, retired pastor,

active churchman and
doting grandparent.
Contact: drmjkeppler@gmail.com


 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Pray and Move Your Feet!"

Image
There is an old West African proverb: “When you pray, move your feet.” I have said something similar in a little different way: “Be careful in your praying. You may be (and often are!) the answer to your own prayer.” Others see this almost as a command to “Put feet to your prayers!” What do we mean by these various sayings? Prayer is not just an important spiritual discipline for the Christian, it often leads to an “in the flesh” response and connection between the pray-er and the prayer request. Prayer and Action! pngimg.com While prayer is one of the spiritual disciplines, this doesn't mean it is just an academic, theoretical or forensic exercise! I have heard it said, "God inhabits the praises of His people." This suggests that it blesses God to hear the praise of His people in prayer. I believe that the Lord gets an even greater blessing when our praying is “incarnated” in devotion, commitment and service for Him. Our best efforts at praying involve action plans to ...
Read more

Sayings That Shape Us!

Image
Joseph D. Keppler December 9, 1929 - February 14, 2024 (I shared the following eulogy at my Dad's funeral, February 19, 2024).  I have so many wonderful memories from growing up with my parents. I say “growing up” because it became clear when I started grade school and heard one of my peers exclaim, “Your parents are so young!” And they were! Mom and Dad eloped on June 10, 1950, and had to go all the way to Corinth, Mississippi to get a justice of the peace who would marry a 16-year-old girl to a 20-year-old sailor, who after four years of active duty, was now in the Naval reserves! That sailor and his gal would become dad and mom, grandpa and grandma, to this great family. Mike, Grandpa, and Matt "A quick pic between oil changes!" I learned so much from dad who had married young, took on a family of four kiddos, and started his own business in those first fourteen years of marriage. Growing up in a family business taught me many lessons for sure! Watching dad and mom in ...
Read more

What's Your Best Gift?

Image
This past week, we just concluded the season on the Christian calendar referred to as Twelfthtide or the 12 Days of Christmas. One of our pastors reminded us on Sunday, New Years Eve, that technically, Christmas was not yet over! I suspect that he had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he addressed primarily the youth and children and suggested that they could still take advantage of this in the remaining days leading up to Epiphany on January 6th!😉  "This was marked down and I couldn't pass it up!" Marc texted. What was your favorite gift of the Christmas season? What gift did you give to another that received a special response? I doubt that it was a fruitcake! Am I right? Just a few days ago, I received a picture and text from our good-humored son, Marc. He was weighing in after Christmas as to why he was able to just now purchase a discounted fruitcake at the local Texas HEB grocery store. I teased him by responding, “You do know why it was discounted, don’t you?!...
Read more