Landing on Another World

I can hardly imagine the nervousness at NASA today, as the rover Curiosity is due to land on Mars late tonight.

I grew up devouring science fiction. I’ve always been fascinated by space travel. The idea that we could create machines that escape our planet, land on another one, and ship back data is still breathtaking to me.

But, as with all Mars or Moon landings, this is no slam dunk. A LOT has to go right to get Curiosity (intact) onto the surface. One of my brothers is an engineer with a firm that designs parachutes for these space adventures. This is high-risk, complex stuff.

The drive to visit another world, and the technological brilliance required to design a way to “Make it so!” (gratuitous Star Trek reference for Jean-Luc Picard fans) is one of the curiously amazing things about how we, as humans, are created.

But it shouldn’t surprise us. We were created by a God who conceived and brought into being an entire universe (0.00001% of which we barely understand), and this Creator was perfectly capable of visiting us, on this Earth, in a form to which we could relate.

Curiosity may fail to land safely on Mars, or it may fail to function properly. Jesus, however, did not fail. It looked like a catastrophic crash when He was impaled on a cross, but that death had a purpose (the redemption of His people), and His rising from the dead and current reign over heaven and earth validated His identity as Savior and Lord.

If your idea of God is a Being incapable of intervening in His own creation, incapable of communicating with His finite creatures, incapable of providing redemption and forgiveness to sinners…well, then, to quote a book title from a few decades ago, Your God is Too Small.

It is a small but still amazing thing that we little humans can reach out to another world. Let it serve as a snapshot of a far greater visit to our world.

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