We

This past winter my parents and I watched an superb documentary on the Apollo space program, entitled In the Shadow of the Moon. It's so awesome because it lets the astronauts tell their stories with original footage--there's no other narration besides the astronauts' stories. Totally awesome movie.

In addition to watching the main feature, my parents and I also viewed the bonus stories and interviews. These were equally cool! Mike Collins was one of the astronauts predominantly featured in the documentary. On Apollo 11 he was the Command Module Pilot--a fancy name for the astronaut that does not walk on the moon, and instead keeps an orbiting base alive for the two other astronauts.


In the extras Mike Collins talked about his experiences when he and his Apollo 11 crewmates Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went on a global goodwill tour following their mission. Collins told the story of how when on tour, all over the world, people of all nations kept saying that "we" had finally done it. "We"--humankind--had finally landed on the moon and successfully, safely return. No, it wasn't "You the Americans" who had landed on the moon--it was "we"--humankind. Collins expressed how neat he thought it was that people all over the globe thought that "we" had done--not just a particular country.

After we finished watching the extras, my father remarked to me on how neat he thought it was the Mike Collins had seen the "we" factor, not just the "me" or "us" factor. Dad then pointed out a Bible verse that supported this fact--the "we" factor. It's found in Deuteronomy 4:19:

"And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars--all the heavenly array--do not be enticed into...worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven."

Wow. "apportioned to all the nations under heaven." I thought that it was pretty cool that God said that his creation--especially the sun, moon, and stars--were not just for one nation or one people. They were for all of  us, all of the inhabitants on planet Earth.

What does God want to do with his creation? Ultimately, it's to bring healing to us. In Revelation 22:2 the disciple John talks about a tree that's going to be in heaven:

"On each side of the river stood the tree of life...and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."

Isn't that cool, that God wants to use his creation to bring us healing? As we see more and more uses of nature with the intent of being harmful, it is always refreshing to see that God's original intent--and what He'll do in heaven--is to bring healing to his people, to make us a "we" and not focus on "me".