December 7, 2015 (Monday)
Last Thursday I saw the International Space Station. Well, not exactly. I didn’t see that marvelous house in the sky manned by six astronauts closely enough to identify it. For one thing, it was dark already although it was only 6:15 p.m. The dark sky enabled me to see the space station as a bright light in the heavens, moving steadily north northeast. Dwight found a schedule of the time it would appear and the position toward which we would need to look in order to see it. It was an exciting moment, watching this object move over our house (although Dwight said it was not really over our house because it was moving across the northwestern Gulf of Mexico at the time). But it was so far from us (about 250 miles straight up) that it appeared to my eye to be almost directly overhead. That’s about the distance from Rockport to Waco! And we were watching it. A few minutes later it was over land between Houston and New Orleans on its way to New York or Maine. It travels about 300 miles per minute. I don’t know about you, but that boggles my mind.
The sky above the earth is dotted with satellites that are constantly taking pictures. If on this date in 1941 we had had such fantastic equipment scanning the Pacific Ocean, we would have seen the convoy of warships headed for Pearl Harbor. That was 74 years ago. Does not seem possible. I was ten years old when I came in from the out of doors and saw my grandmother sitting near the radio (something she never did). The voice from the radio sounded very serious. “What is it?” I asked. “War,” she replied. The following day, in a dramatic speech before Congress, President Roosevelt uttered immortal words: “December 7, 1941–a date that will live in infamy.”
Today we are in a new war that has now come to our shores. Jesus told us long ago, “There shall be wars and rumors of wars,” and that prophecy has come to pass. As we observe the Christmas season, we recall the words of the angels who announced His birth: “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” That perfect world does not yet exist.
Many people reach out to help others at Christmas time. Spreading the gospel throughout the world is heavily emphasized in many congregations as they give toward mission work. Christ indeed is the answer to the spiritual needs of the world. We desperately need a spiritual awakening in our land.