"Go For Launch!"

I have been a space enthusiast for as long as I can remember. When I consider the actual numbers, I have been watching launches since May 1961, when Alan Shepard and the Mercury capsule lifted off powered by a Saturn V rocket for that first American suborbital mission from the Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I was barely ten years old, but I was thrilled to join millions of others, from my generation, in following the space program through radio and television coverage.

When I moved to Sharpstown, Texas, in southwest Houston to pastor in 1984, I lived in the same suburban community where the seven original Mercury astronauts were given starter homes back in their day. Our kids went to Ed White Elementary, the neighborhood school, that honored the memory of Edward Higgins White, born in San Antonio, who lost his life along with two fellow astronauts, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. The terrible accident happened in 1967 when a fire broke out in the cabin during a pre-launch testing of the Apollo 1 spacecraft that took the lives of the crew by asphyxiation.  

Space Center 2016
During those years in Houston, we began making regular trips as a family and with friends to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in southeast Harris County. Since moving back to Illinois, we have continued to make occasional trips to the space center to enjoy seeing models and exhibits of the next iterations of space travel. We made one of those special trips in 2016, ten years ago. Monique and I had a photo-op alongside a mockup of the Orion spacecraft. You can begin to see why I was jazzed with emotion to watch the recent launch of Artemis II with the Orion capsule at the top!

I have been following nightly newscasts leading up to and since the April 1st launch. On one broadcast, Tom Costello, who covers NASA launches and science updates for NBC, showcased the awesome power of the four launch rockets with 8.8 million pounds of thrust. Costello then made this cryptic remark, “If you light these (rockets), you’re going somewhere!” I chuckled but then remembered Ed White and the danger of this endeavor!

Well, today at the time of this writing, I am waiting and watching televised news updates of the progress of the Artemis II flyby. The spacecraft has now travelled over 242,000 miles to loop around the moon and will soon achieve a record distance from planet earth for any human being! Indeed, these four astronauts (Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen) are boldly going where Star Trek fans often exclaim, “No man has gone before!” This lunar swing loop takes them out and around an additional 10,000 miles from those of us watching their epic mission! Wowzers! This is really something to witness!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday! Easter is a high-point worship experience in the Christian calendar! It is the day when believers celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the dead! While I am awed by human space travel, it does not begin to compare at all with the “awe-factor” of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

The Apostle Paul expressed his inner awe with this passionate confession to the Philippian church, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead… so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead.”  (Philippians 3:10-11, NLT).

The day before Easter, I stood on a cold and blustery early spring afternoon in a nearby cemetery with a grieving family. When I am asked to lead such a committal service, I like to pause before reading Scripture to take it all in. As the buckles and straps were snapping in the wind against the canvas shelter, I drew attention to numerous monuments and markers all around us.

I then said, “Someday, this will be one of the busiest places throughout our central Illinois prairies! Resurrected bodies, transformed and suited for heaven, and gloriously animated by the power of the resurrected, returning Christ, will be coming up all over the place!

Paul delivered this powerful revelation from Christ, “Let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown… Our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die… But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53,57).

Now, that transformation at the Second Coming of Christ will be an absolute, awe-inspiring display of power like the world has never known! All because of the One who declared and demonstrated such power in His own life, “I am the resurrection and the life! Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying!” (John 11:25-26). 

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen!"

Check out: Artemis 1

Mike Keppler, retired pastor,
active churchman and
doting grandparent.
Contact: drmjkeppler@gmail.com
©2018-2026 All rights reserved.
Serve by Design. mjkministries.com

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