It was Christmas Eve and their 5-year-old church plant had reserved a local reception hall for a special candlelight service. Post gathering, when the story had been read and songs had been sung and all the attendees has hurried off to other family festivities, the staff and some key volunteers remained to break down the room and load up the gear.
One pastor’s wife sat on the sidelines apologizing for not being able to help. She wasn’t her usual self, engaging in every point of service. She did, however, have a very good reason. She had only three weeks left of her pregnancy as they waited for the special delivery of a baby boy in early January. Everyone understood, of course, that she rested while the team handled the heavy stuff. What felt like minor back pain, mild discomfort, and fatigue turned out to be labor and their son was born in the early hours of December 25. A Christmas day text chain alerted the rest of the staff team about the arrival of their precious gift.
The depth of great love rocking the child that you carried is a feeling most really can’t describe. You’ve heard the expression, “I love you to the moon and back.” Taken literally, that’s quite a distance — 477,800 miles to be exact, round trip. A mother doesn’t mean she won’t love her child past that one extra mile. She certainly doesn’t mean that 477,800 is the limit and that 477, 801 is just a bit too far. It’s hyperbole. Not many moms make it to the moon and the saying only serves to amplify her love and indicate that there really is no end to it.
No Limit to God's Love
In December 1968, NASA’s Apollo 8 mission sent astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders to the moon to test the lunar module that would later be used in Apollo 11, rocketing (literally) Neil Armstrong to legendary status as the man who landed on the moon.
Several significant breakthrough advancements occurred as part of the ambitious mission. Borman, Lovell, and Andrews became the first men to leave earth’s gravitational pull, the first to orbit the moon, the first to view all of earth from outer space, and the first to see the dark side of the moon. (Unless, of course, you believe that Transformers are real.)
The most memorable moment of the Apollo 8 mission (December 21-27, 1968), especially for Christians is the fact that Borman, Lovell, and Anders read Genesis 1:1-10 in one of the most watched worldwide broadcasts in television history. They concluded the broadcast by saying, “Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.”
Perhaps you were huddled around your family room television watching the broadcast on Christmas Eve 1968. Do you remember it? Only those over the age of 53 were born and only those likely approaching 60 or over would remember. Maybe you can picture what that was like for viewers, especially dreamy eyed children as they watched. That awe would be trumped again in seven short months during the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969. Perhaps you can even, for a moment, imagine what it must have been like to be Borman that Christmas as he read Genesis 1:10 with full view of the earth floating midair in his sight:
"God called the dry land 'earth,' and the gathering of the water he called 'seas.' And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:10
That Hebrew word translated in English as “good” is towb and it really is a good one. (See what we did there?) It means pleasant or agreeable when referring to the senses and the obvious way that God saw and responded to the world He made. It means kind and right when referring to His character and glad or profitable when it comes to our bounty in Christ. There really is no limit to His kindness towards us. God loves us to the moon and back, right?
It certainly goes without saying that Christmas 1968 is one that those astronauts wouldn’t trade. While they missed holiday traditions and special moments with family and friends, they were most assuredly right where they needed to be doing exactly what they were meant to do. It was towb for them and all of us that their Christmas was spent viewing the earth rather than celebrating on it.
"Everyone has unique-to-them experiences that enable them to catch a special glimpse of God’s grand goodness or feel His amazing love."
When you consider the monumental nature of that orbit and the years of research and preparation as well as the amazing technological advancements that made it possible, December 1968 must have been their greatest Christmas memory. Viewing the whole earth in all its created goodness certainly makes those words from Genesis narrative come alive in a way only few will ever experience.
God's Grand Goodness and Amazing Love
That would certainly ring true for our pregnant pastor’s wife as well. How special must it have been to honor God for the gift of His son while you welcomed one of your own! Perhaps that particular Christmas offered a glimpse of God’s great love they had observed but never quite experienced in such a way. Swaddling a few hours old newborn on Christmas Day certainly connects one to the Nativity story in a fresh way.
We all have those types of experience, though. Everyone, whether they notice them or not, has unique-to-them experiences that enable them to catch a special glimpse of God’s grand goodness or feel His amazing love. It may not be aboard a space shuttle or in a birthing room on Christmas, but because of God’s goodness, we’ve all been given that chance.
In what ways have you observed it? In what ways have you been wrapped up in it? How has God’s very good love met you at Christmas in the past? How are you experiencing it now? He certainly loves us to the moon and back. Farther even. That’s why he gave us Jesus. That’s why he gave us Himself. He’s just that good.