On December 24, 1968, the
astronauts of Apollo 8 were making their fourth orbit around the moon when they
saw something that no other human being had seen before. As they began their
rotation, the spacecraft windows caught the edge of the moon just as planet
Earth appeared on the horizon. And for the first time in human history, they had
a chance to see our world from God’s perspective.

The photographs they returned
with were spectacular. They were printed in LIFE magazine and widely circulated
over the years.  But what I found so
interesting about the Earthrise photograph is that it reminded me just how
powerful and awesome the God we worship really is.

He is the God who created
this world. He separated the night from the day, parted the Red Sea and saved
Noah from the flood. In the book of Job, we get a chance to hear God ask: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s
foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you
know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?” (Job 38:4-7).

Isn’t that a great image – a
God who can measure the Earth’s foundation? But at the same time, he’s a loving
Father who knows each of us individually. The Psalmist writes: “For you created my inmost being; you knit
me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:15).

The same God who separated
the water from the land also cared enough to design every part of you. He knows
the hairs on your head, the way your laugh sounds and your deepest dreams and
goals. And he is the same God who calls each of us individually by name,
drawing us through our Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The next time you look up to
the moon, think about the astronauts of Apollo 8 racing through the stars,
remember – God created that universe, but he also created you – and he loves
you very much.

I’m Joseph Tkach, Speaking of
LIFE.