“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” Never had human beings read God’s word from so far away. Never had so many people listened. On December 24, 1968, I was a teenager captivated by a live TV broadcast all the way from the moon. My family and I joined nearly one-quarter of all human beings on the earth that night as we turned our eyes heavenward and our thoughts toward God.
The crew of Apollo 8, with no better than a 50% chance of success, blasted off from Earth on December 21—their destination the moon. Their mission, in preparation for a moon landing later on, was to orbit the moon 10 times and return to Earth. They arrived there on Christmas Eve. On their fourth orbit they saw, and we saw, what no human eyes had ever seen—an earthrise over the surface of the moon. As they rounded the moon for the ninth time, all regular TV programming ceased and the astronauts took center stage.
They pointed their video camera at the surface of the moon, and we saw those first faint close-up images of another world, with our world in the background. It was astounding! With the image of the surface of the moon passing by, astronaut William Anders announced, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.”
At that point the astronauts read the first ten verses of the book of Genesis from the Bible, each reading a portion of the passage. Imagine, astronauts reading from the Bible over TV to the entire world! The trip to the moon was historic. Seeing the earthrise was historic. But hearing those words from the Bible from so far away, left as much of an impression on me as the images of the moon. Astronaut Frank Borman finished the broadcast with this closing, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”
I walked outside into the cold December night and thought about what had just happened. The crescent-shaped moon I had seen on TV was there in the western sky just behind our house. I thought to myself how amazing it was that they were really up there and I was down here on Earth. The lights of a solitary car passing on the gravel road reflected off the trees. As it faded into the distance all I could hear was a dog barking far away. Greens Chapel, Arkansas, a small community, was five miles from the nearest town, and a long way from the moon. Even though I had only watched, I felt that I had just been part of something important.
I was only 17 years old, but I had already seen the assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother, and Dr. King. The war in Vietnam wasn’t going well, there were riots in the cities, protests on campuses, and the Beatles were singing about “revolution”. Next year, I’d be eligible for the draft. Crawling into bed that night, I could see out my window faint images of a tree-line across the field, but my thoughts were miles away thinking about journeys to the moon and the meaning of life.
In spite of the times—or maybe because of the times—I developed a strong belief that one person really could change the world. After all, if we can go to the moon, why can’t we change the world? It had been done before—why not again? What’s more, why not me? It was a few months later that God got my attention and I gave my heart to Him. He took the desires of my heart, shaped them, and set me on His path. Even when God has had to take me the long way around, I wouldn’t trade my path for any other, and I wouldn’t trade the work He has set before me for anything else in the world.
As you and your family turn your thoughts toward God and toward heaven this Christmas season, I hope and pray that you will allow Him to guide you and direct your path. Like those men who were the first to go to the moon, God has more adventure for you than you can imagine as you choose to take the path He has set before you.
Jerry Cox, President
