I cannot recall what I was doing on Christmas Eve in 1968. I was twenty-one, driving a brand-new Firebird 400 around Omaha, stationed with the Navy at 30th and Laurel. Whatever I was doing that night has long since faded from memory, but the same evening became one of the most remarkable in American history. On December 24, 1968, Apollo VIII—piloted by astronauts James Lovell, William Anders, and Frank Borman—became the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. They circled it ten times before heading home, sending back breathtaking images of the earth rising above the moon’s gray horizon. Borman’s photograph of that glowing blue planet became so iconic that the U.S. Postal Service later featured it on a stamp. The astronauts marveled at the stark contrast between the moon’s desolation and the earth’s beauty, noting that the lunar surface was completely colorless. Yet in that colorless vastness, these three men decided to speak about light.
In his autobiography, Frank Borman wrote, “There was one more impression we wanted to transmit: our feeling of closeness to the Creator of all things.” NASA had asked him to say something appropriate for Christmas Eve, knowing millions would be listening. After consulting friends, Borman selected the most fitting passage imaginable: the opening verses of Genesis. Bill Anders began: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth…” Then Jim Lovell read the next verses, describing God separating light from darkness and forming the heavens. Borman finished with the creation of the land and seas, concluding, “And God saw that it was good.” Those words, spoken from 240,000 miles away, reminded everyone on earth that even in the silence of space, God’s voice still speaks. Borman later said he felt an overwhelming “closeness to the Creator of all things.” What a thought—to travel so far into the heavens only to discover how near God truly is.
The wonder of that moment reminds us that we do not have to orbit the moon to draw near to God. In fact, He came near to us. John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). What the astronauts felt in space, the shepherds experienced in a field outside Bethlehem when the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest.” Isaiah’s prophecy still echoes through the centuries: “Behold, unto you a child is born, unto you a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). God did not wait for humanity to reach Him; He came down to us. We might say that Christmas was heaven’s own moon landing—Immanuel, “God with us,” bringing light into our darkness and closeness into our cold, distant world.