As Psalm 19:1 tells us, the heavens declare the glory of God. All humans at all times have access to this information. We refuse to recognize what’s obvious, as Paul tells us in Romans 1, because we actively suppress this knowledge. Ordinary life makes it all too easy to ignore or deny what God is clearly expressing about himself and his creation. Our lives are continuously busy and distracted by things that occur on the human level.

Most Christians would likely struggle if, out of the blue, someone asked them to share a message about Easter Sunday. But Victor Glover was put on the spot while 250,000 miles from home and with the whole Earth listening.

“I don’t have anything prepared,” said the unflappable former Navy test pilot and NASA’s current Artemis II pilot. “I’m glad you brought that up, though; I think these observances are important.”

“I think that for me one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing,” he added. “And you know when I read the Bible, and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created—it’s . . . you have this amazing place, this spaceship.”

“You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe,” Glover said.

“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you—just trust me—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,” he said, referring to Earth.

“I think, as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about, you know, 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’ve gotta get through this together.”

Glover was responding to a question from a reporter who mentioned the Christmas message delivered by the astronauts from NASA’s Apollo 8 mission. During that 1968 mission, about one in four people on the planet watched the video transmission from space on television. NASA’s deputy administrator for public affairs had told the crew before the launch that more people would hear the crew’s voices than any other voice in history. He said, “So, we want you to say something appropriate.”

One of the astronauts asked his wife what the team should say. “Why don’t you begin at the beginning?” she said. And so they did.

On Christmas Eve, the first humans to orbit the Moon read from Genesis. Astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman recited verses 1 through 10 of the Genesis creation narrative from the King James Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth . . .”

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