The “Magnificent Desolation” and the “Grand Oasis”
I love to sing about and read children’s books about the days of Creation. It is exciting to remember God’s creation of the things we see around us. Last week Ray and I went to the zoo with several of our grandchildren and their parents. Thinking about the variety of what we saw, Ray talked about the impossibility that all those animals could have evolved from one cell.
The meerkat, . . .
The crevice spiny lizard, . . .
The cougar, . . .
The peahen and babies, . . .
The red panda, . . .
And even the flowers . . .
And the bird visitor from the zoo neighborhood . . .
. . . declare the wisdom of God.
O Lord, how many are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all;
The earth is full of Your possessions.
Psalm 104:24
The first words of Astronaut Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the moon are iconic: That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
The first words of Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin are less so. First, he said, “Beautiful view. Then, he said, “Magnificent desolation.”
This picture of Earth taken during the Apollo 11 moon landing mission shows the contrast of that magnificent desolation and the place God made for us to live.
Our daughters Bethany and Mary Evelyn and I co-authored Our Star-Spangled Story (grades 1-4). I was privileged to write the “One Giant Leap for Mankind” lesson. This is how it ends:
President Kennedy set a goal in 1961. NASA accomplished it. Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon. They and Collins returned home to the planet God made just right for us.
Jim Lovell, who had seen the earth from far away and the moon up close the previous December, described the Earth and the moon this way:
The vast loneliness up here of the moon is awe inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth. The earth from here is a grand oasis to the big vastness of space.
For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens
(He is the God who formed the earth and made it,
He established it and did not create it a waste place,
but formed it to be inhabited),
“I am the Lord, and there is none else.
Isaiah 45:18