I’ve been reading recently about the NASA astronauts who returned to earth after an unexpectedly long stay on the International Space Station. What should have been a stay of one week turned into 286 days for Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, due to technical problems.
Although space, and science generally, aren’t things I’m interested in particularly, I’m fascinated by the Space Station and have used a NASA phone app to find out when it will be visible as it passes above the UK.
When this happens, if it’s at a reasonable time and on a clear night, I like to try and remember to go outside a few minutes before it’s due and see if I spot it and then watch its progress overhead until it’s disappeared from view. (I might also admit that I sometimes wave like mad as it passes … but you didn’t hear that from me)!
It’s so hard to believe that this small, bright dot travelling so quickly above us is actually an incredibly expensive collection of technological gadgets crewed by humans from many different countries and directed, ultimately, by another group of humans back on earth and their incredible technology.
Last year I went to a wonderful multimedia show in London called The Moonwalkers. Narrated by actor Tom Hanks, this looked back at the story of the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s and 1970s and also looked forward to the Artemis programme of crewed missions to the moon which are due to start in 2026.
Inevitably, the limited technology on view in the shots and films of Mission Control in the 60s and 70s appeared to owe much more to pen, paper and calculators than microchips, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. It seems a miracle that the missions were so successful.
The photos and film taken by the Apollo astronauts on the moon’s surface, many whilst travelling in a Moon Buggy, were remarkable and, shown on massive screens completely surrounding the audience, created a really immersive spectacular.
It seems incredible to me that the total number of people who’ve stood on the moon so far is just twelve and that each visit lasted only days, yet the footprints they left remain and will do so, potentially, for millions of years. The lunar landscape, shown in a much larger scale and higher resolution than we saw in news footage at the time, looks like an extreme example of many people’s idea of a ‘wilderness’ with few landmarks to indicate the way to travel.
Lent, the end of which we’re approaching during Holy Week, is a good time to consider our own times in the wilderness: when our spiritual lives have been hard, dry and confusing; when we’ve felt lost, without recognisable landmarks and without a focus.
When we feel like that, we don’t have to wear cumbersome space suits to protect us as the Apollo astronauts did as we try and make sense of where we are, or wait nine months to be rescued because technology, despite its advances, has failed spectacularly.
The astronauts on the moon, though in one sense they must have felt so small, lonely and far from home, seemed to enjoy their exploration of the possibilities of the wilderness, jumping and even experimenting with a golf swing. When we feel small, sad, lonely, even abandoned, let’s remember that our return to an awareness of our Lord’s love and protection is always less than a heart beat away. He will always comfort us and guide us through, then away from, the wilderness when we ask Him to.
The one thing we have in common with the astronauts, is that our footprints will remain for untold years. Ours won’t be on the surface of somewhere bleak and lonely though. They’ll be on God’s heart until the end of time.
Whether your Lenten journey so far has been a joy, a struggle or something in between, what a beautiful thought to carry with us through Holy Week and to celebrate at Easter.
Have a Happy and Joyful Easter.
Sunlight Through the Shadows 