Last week I watched a documentary about the last man to walk on the moon in 1972. I've thought quite a lot about the moon over the years. It's now almost 49 years since a man first walked on the moon, which means you really have to be well into your 50s even to remember that momentous event. I abhor conspiracy theories, but when we think how long ago it was that America reached the moon with a manned space flight I can understand a little why younger people today might question whether it really ever happened and might even be taken in by a man I know who tells me he's met the guy who helped film the event in the desert in Arizona!
When my younger son and his wife went to see Apollo 13 they realised half way through the film that they had no idea whether or not the crew returned safely to earth. Men on the moon seem like ancient history and why has no one gone back? Surely today it would be relatively easy to do so with the immense advances in technology; after all they could do it 50 years ago when we didn't even have mobile phones. Meanwhile back in Arizona.....
A lot of us who read the Bible love that verse in Ephesians which tells us; 'And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus' (2:6). I suggest when those first steps were taken on the lunar surface that in the United States the celebrations were ecstatic, with Press and people proclaiming that's our man on the Moon. But other Americans were declaring at the same time, 'We're on the Moon' Well our Man has gone through the heavenly realms, but we're in the heavenly realms as well! Just as Americans knew that their man was on the moon and could so identify with him it was as though they were there as well, we too, as Believers, can identify with our Man to celebrate that we are caught up into the heavenly realms with him.
When our two sons were very young my favourite story to read to them at bedtime was a gem of a book called; Everyone loves the Moon by James Young. While enthusing about the universal love of the moon (for even the cows love the mooon) Mr Racoon pursues Miss O.Possum until finally they are wed; an evening wedding of course under a glorious full moon. Parents of young children need to make this book a priority because they too can enjoy it every time it's read.
But way back in 1969 just as men stepped onto the surface of the moon for the very first time in the history of the Universe I stepped into the pulpit of my very first church for the very first time in a Baptist Church in Southampton - One small step for man, but perhaps not such a giant leap for mankind....however the memory of both events has certainly remained with me and I think of them often when I look into the sky at night and see that bright lunar disc.
But then there's a little book that tells me: Everyone loves the moon.