Straight From The Hart
Joan Rowden Hart
Do you remember what you were doing on July 20, 1969, the historic day
when Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the moon?
I hope you had the opportunity last week to watch some of the
televised coverage of his memorial service at Washington National
Cathedral.
Fellow astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, gave
an emotional eulogy, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house (nor in
my office) when Diana Krall walked to the piano and accompanied
herself beautifully as she sang “Fly Me To The Moon”.
In some ways people my age pretty much grew up with our space program,
and I can remember where I was when some of the notable events
occurred.
As a freshman in high school, I remember sitting in my classroom on
October 4, 1957 as we discussed the news that morning that Russia had
launched the Sputnik satellite, and how disturbed our teachers were
that they were now ahead of us in the “space race”. Little did we
know what would happen in space only a short 12 years later. It is
still mind-boggling when you think about it.
I remember when our astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger
Chaffee died in the Apollo fire on the launch pad on January 27, 1967.
Milan and I were eating supper at the Munger Moss restaurant that
night when it was the major item of discussion among everybody around
us.
I was traveling Highway 5 on my way to Jefferson City when the
Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its tenth flight on January
28, 1986. Gov. John Ashcroft had just nominated me for the position
of Human Rights Commissioner for my Congressional District, and my
confirmation hearing was held that day in the Missouri Senate. The
breaking news came in on the car radio, and I remember the sadness
that gripped our nation and especially our state capitol at the news
of the tragic deaths of all our astronauts aboard the Challenger.
So where was I on July 20, 1969? It was Sunday evening and Milan and
I were watching the small black and white TV set in the living room
of our home on Beverly Drive.
As it turned out I was exactly 3 months and 2 days away from giving
birth to my first and only child. I was lying on our sofa with my
head propped up so I could feel the sharp kicks of the baby in my
womb, and watch the undulating movements across my body as her tiny
elbows and feet would kick and punch into my skin.
Looking back now, I am amazed at how closely we are bonded on this
earth to the moon which is about 240,000 miles away. From the first
human footsteps on the moon to the unborn baby in my womb, there was
still a connection as set forth in the Old Testament book of
Ecclesiastes.
Solomon writes that at the time of our death, the silver cord will be
loosed, (or severed, as some versions have it). This is a passage I
often share at funeral services because I believe that we humans are
tethered to this earth by an unseen umbilical cord which will be
broken when we die and our soul will be released into the presence of
God.
And just as the unborn baby has grown to where she will no longer fit
in the cramped space of the mothers’ womb, and painfully struggles to
be freed from its confines, only to be released into another world
much larger and brighter and beautiful than she could ever have
imagined, so we will find our heavenly home to be worth all the
struggles and pains of our earthly life.
I believe our astronauts had this kind of faith as they observed the
beauty of our universe from inside their space ships, proving that men
of science can also be men of faith.
Buzz Aldrin was an elder in his Presbyterian church and packed the
communion elements into the small bag of personal items each astronaut
was allowed to carry aboard the spacecraft. As he stepped out on the
surface of the moon, Aldrin asked NASA to call for a moment of silence
to meditate on the events of the past hours and during that time he
read John 15:5 silently and observed communion.
He had to be discreet in his actions because on December 24, 1968,
astronauts William Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman, in a live
telecast while in lunar orbit, took turns reading the Creation account
from Genesis chapter 1 to the American people. This of course
resulted in atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hare filing a lawsuit against
them.
There were others of our astronauts who spoke of their faith as they
took communion while they were in space, including Thomas David Jones
and Kevin Chilton aboard the Endeavor.
Patrick Forrester, a member of the space shuttle Discovery’s crew in
2009, carried a piece of the plane flown by martyred missionary Nate
Saint, who was killed along with 4 other missionaries in Ecuador in
1956. He left it at the International Space Station saying that he
hoped that “bringing attention to and renewing interest in missions
would be a great result” of our space program.
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