During the Easter holidays many of us will have watched with fascination the progress of astronauts aboard the Artemis 2 space mission. As I reflected on in this week’s Senior School assembly, as I watched and listened to reports of the mission I was struck not only by the scientific achievement, but by the beauty of some of the words shared by the astronauts.
One astronaut, Christina Koch, said, “The thing that changed for me looking back at Earth, was that I found myself noticing not only the beauty of the Earth, but how much blackness there was around it and made it more special. It truly emphasised how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive. We evolved on the same planet, and we have some shared things about how we love and live that are just universal. And the specialness and the preciousness of that really is emphasised when you notice how much else there is around it.”
Another of the astronauts, Victor Glover, said, “so far from Earth and looking at the beauty of creation, I think, for me, one of the personal perspectives I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. And you know, when I read the Bible, and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us, whoever created it, you have this amazing place. You guys are talking to us because we are in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you are on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place in the universe and the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we are doing is special, but I’m trying to tell, you are special. In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe; you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. As we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we have to get through this together.”
There is a great deal to reflect on in these quotes.
Perhaps living on Earth it can be easy to take for granted the beauty of the Earth. Set against the darkness of space and with a whole-world perspective that beauty is no doubt a great deal more evident. How privileged we are to have such a beautiful world in which to live and how valuable it is to be reminded.
We are all special. Very few of us will ever get to go into space, but we all have our own special roles to play in life.
Each of us will be very conscious of the amount of division, conflict, distrust and indifference present within the world. The view of Earth from space emphasises unity. On Earth the world is often seen as continents and countries; from space Earth is one place.
The season of Easter, celebrating the Risen Lord, will continue all the way until the feast of Pentecost on 24 May and is a season of joy and a season of hope. In this joyful and hopeful season of Easter let us give thanks for the beautiful Earth on which we live. Let us be people of peace and of neighbourly love towards all and let us pray for peace in our world.
