[MajestyJo]

There are poems in the Bible that reflect
on our place in the universe, and we use
one of them as our prayer today. It is
called ‘Psalm 8’, and a copy of this psalm
was later left on the moon in a sealed
capsule by American astronauts:

Let us pray:

Lord, our God and King,
your greatness is seen
throughout the earth.

When I gaze at the heavens
which your fingers have formed,
and look at the moon and the stars
which you have set there,
I realise how small we are
in the majesty of your creation.

Yet you treasure us
above all that you have made,
and you give us control
over all the works of your hand
- animals both wild and tame,
birds in the air,
and the creatures of the sea.
Lord, our God and King,
your greatness is seen
throughout the earth.
(Psalm 8, paraphrased)

✍ What might the Russian priest have meant
when he said: “If you haven’t seen God on earth,
you will never see him in heaven” ?
✍ Why might some astronauts have felt that their
experiences led them closer to God?
✍ James Weldon Johnson has an interesting
poem, ‘The Creation’: “And God stepped out
on space.”
✍ Yuri Gagarin, once the most famous person in
the world, died in 1968, aged 34, when testing
a new aircraft.
✍ Psalm 1397-10 - “If I climb the heavens you are
there
& O Lord, my God, when I in awesome
wonder; This day God gives me; Christ
be beside me; Yahweh, I know you are
near.