How well I remember that moment 50 years ago, as my brother, my mother and I sat in front our television, watching American Astronaut Neil Armstrong take his famous “small step for [a] man” and “giant leap for mankind.” It was the summer before my senior year in college – a time when I thought all things were possible!
Years later I learned some very special things about Armstrong’s fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The astronaut was an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. Carrying bread in a plastic packet and a chalice from his home church, Buzz Aldrin invited the NASA team to take communion with him. Aldrin planned to take communion as close in time as possible to his church family back home in Houston, and had been given a light silver cup by his pastor, Dean Woodruff.
NASA, wary after atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair sued NASA for compromising the separation of church and state by reading the creation account in Genesis on the Apollo 8 trip a year earlier, decided against broadcasting the event, except to the NASA team, who could listen in.
In an article for Guideposts magazine in 1970, Aldrin described the moment:
“I unstowed the elements in their flight packets. I put them and the scripture reading on the little table in front of the abort guidance system computer. Then I called back to Houston. ‘Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM Pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way.’ In the radio blackout I opened the little plastic packages which contained bread and wine … Just before I partook of the elements, I read the words, which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space we are in fact acting in Christ. I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home, and with the Church everywhere. I read: ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me’. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements … People everywhere, looking up at the vastness of the heavens in awe of its Creator and source, ALL came together, and somehow the vastness seemed smaller. God, to many, seemed somehow closer. Each one seemed an integral part of a much bigger whole. Distance drew people near; expansiveness highlighted smallness; focused on this, the world itself seemed to converge.”
I just learned that the Webster Presbyterian Church still celebrates their connection with the moon landing every year on the nearest Sunday, with the event description for Sunday reading: “On July 21, 1969, the people of WPC read Psalm 8 and took communion in solidarity with the Apollo 11 crew.
“When I consider the heavens, the works of Thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained,
what is man that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that thou visiteth him?”
I mark this occasion in my heart, giving thanks to the God who ordained the moon and the stars, and is mindful of each one of us gazing up into the heavens from our place here on God’s good earth. I give thanks for those events that bring us together and pray for more such moments of oneness. I’m grateful to have been a part of the time when “we” took that “giant leap for mankind,” and for continuing traveling mercies along the way.
Elizabeth
This week-end was our family reunion, and folks old and young gathered from near and far to share adventures in a new place, to remember and to give thanks. It’s been said that “we don’t choose our family; they are God’s gift to us.” With each passing year, I see more clearly the gift my family has been in my life. I once read that “family is where life begins and love never ends.” How very true! The love continues to grow and we’re held in the strength of that love from year to year.
I was asked to offer a “family prayer and blessing” for our meal on Saturday evening:
Great and loving God, God of our fathers and our mothers, God of our children and our children’s children and our God: We thank you for this time of reunion, and for all the family ties that bind us together from year to year. We give thanks for all that past generations gave to us that helped us become the people we are, and pray that we will give to those who follow us in ways that will help them to become all you created them to be. Bless and complete the good we have done in the living of our lives from day to day; redeem our mistakes; and continue to work in all the circumstances of our lives for our good and for your glory. As we remember with love those no longer sitting here among us, we give thanks for the gift of new life in our family circle this past year, and for their presence in our midst tonight - a visible reminder that we have a future. May each of these little ones do their part to make this world a better place. In the words their great, great, great grandfather always used to bless each meal as the family gathered around the table: “O Lord, bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies, and us to thy service. Amen.”
It’s interesting to note changes from year to year. Adult children are growing more attentive to their parents and everyone enjoys the little ones! The parents with children in their tweens and teens are noticeably absent, due to summer school, travel teams and sports competitions, but still we’re family, “where life begins and love never ends,” and we give thanks!
Let’s all be sure to include intergenerational family time during the summer months – time to share new adventures, to remember the past, and to create a vision for the future. I give thanks for family, “God’s gift to us,” and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing!
Elizabeth
In recent weeks, I’ve enjoyed reading The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, by Maxwell King. Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, is best known for his long-running television show for children, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” He was very special to each of my children – our favorite place to be at 5 pm each day was in the Neighborhood with Mister Rogers and his family of real and make-believe friends. Such a hopeful, understanding and loving man – very important in the lives of little ones, as he told each one from week to week, “I’ve always wanted a neighbor just like you! It’s you I like! I like you just the way you are!”
In the forward to the book The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember, Rogers’ wife, Joanne shares a quote he had tucked away in his wallet, that says so very much about the kind of person he hoped to be:
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed
often, and loved much, who has enjoyed the trust of pure
women, the respect of intelligent men, and the love
of little children, who has filled his niche and accomplished
his task, who has left the world better than he found it,
whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a
rescued soul, who has never lacked appreciation of
earth’s beauty or failed to express it, who has always
looked for the best in others and given them the best
he had, whose life was an inspiration, whose memory
a benediction.” (Bessie Anderson Stanley)
Several memorable quotes from this lovely little book are worth our sharing:
“You rarely have time for everything you want in this life,
so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices
can come from a deep sense of who you are.”
“Our parents gave us what they were able to give, and we
took what we could of it and made it part of ourselves…all
that helped to make us who we are. We, in our turn,
will offer what we can of ourselves to our children…”
“It seems the songs of our children may be in keys we’ve
never tried. The melody of each generation emerges from
all that’s gone before. Each one of us contributes in some
unique way to the composition of life.”
“I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you!
I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So let’s make the most of this beautiful day;
since we’re together we might as well say,
Would you be mine? Could you be mine?
Won’t you be my neighbor?”
“Imagine what our neighborhoods would be like
if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just
one kind word to another person.”
“The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have,
but what we do with our blessings. Some people have
many blessings and hoard them. Some have few and
give everything away.”
I give thanks for the life and work of Fred Rogers, and for his ordination as a Presbyterian minister, with the unique charge of working with children and families through television.
Elizabeth