The Emotions Of Christmas
Rex Yancey
Luke 2:21-38
I can remember PRESIDENT John F. Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the 60’s decade.
I can also remember being glued to the television when Neil Armstrong set his feet on the moon in 1969.
NASA launched Apollo 17 in 1975. It was a night launch. Reporters had gathered nearby and made it a social event. They were drinking and making jokes drenched with sarcasm and cynicism waiting for the countdown.
Finally the countdown began for the 35 story high Atlas rocket to be propelled out of earth’s atmosphere and into the heavens. Bill Moyers wrote in his book, ‘‘A world of Ideas,’’ ‘‘The reporters were suddenly all but blinded by an extraordinary orange light, which was just at the limit of what one can bear to look at. The light illuminated everything. Then the rockets rose slowly against the dark canopy of night in total, deafening silence, because it took a few seconds for the sound to come across. The sound waves arrived seconds later in full force with a cataclysmic whoooooooooosh and a mighty hummmmmmmmmm that rattled the reporters’ bones. One could practically see jaws dropping.
‘‘Silence ensued among the press corps the wisecracksa died on the reporters lips. The men’s eyes were filled with light, their mouths wide open, and their faces lit with the inner glow of sheer wonder.
The reporters were suddenly changed. People just got up silently, helping each other up. They were kind and reverent. If only for a moment of time they were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder and experience of wonder had made them moral.’’
Moments like this are rare in our dark world. With all the new inventions we have today, we are not filled with a sense of awe, but cynicism.
We have lost something powerful; we have lost the wonder. Keith Chesterton wrote, ‘‘The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder.’’
Emotions are stirred at ...
Rex Yancey
Luke 2:21-38
I can remember PRESIDENT John F. Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the 60’s decade.
I can also remember being glued to the television when Neil Armstrong set his feet on the moon in 1969.
NASA launched Apollo 17 in 1975. It was a night launch. Reporters had gathered nearby and made it a social event. They were drinking and making jokes drenched with sarcasm and cynicism waiting for the countdown.
Finally the countdown began for the 35 story high Atlas rocket to be propelled out of earth’s atmosphere and into the heavens. Bill Moyers wrote in his book, ‘‘A world of Ideas,’’ ‘‘The reporters were suddenly all but blinded by an extraordinary orange light, which was just at the limit of what one can bear to look at. The light illuminated everything. Then the rockets rose slowly against the dark canopy of night in total, deafening silence, because it took a few seconds for the sound to come across. The sound waves arrived seconds later in full force with a cataclysmic whoooooooooosh and a mighty hummmmmmmmmm that rattled the reporters’ bones. One could practically see jaws dropping.
‘‘Silence ensued among the press corps the wisecracksa died on the reporters lips. The men’s eyes were filled with light, their mouths wide open, and their faces lit with the inner glow of sheer wonder.
The reporters were suddenly changed. People just got up silently, helping each other up. They were kind and reverent. If only for a moment of time they were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder and experience of wonder had made them moral.’’
Moments like this are rare in our dark world. With all the new inventions we have today, we are not filled with a sense of awe, but cynicism.
We have lost something powerful; we have lost the wonder. Keith Chesterton wrote, ‘‘The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder.’’
Emotions are stirred at ...
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