Earlier than my retirement in 2021, I traveled commonly to talk at Christian conferences in America and East Asia. These preaching engagements usually occurred through the Mid-Autumn Pageant, which is a well-liked time for Chinese language church buildings—whether or not within the US or in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and the Philippines—to carry particular occasions. Whereas I deeply loved fellowshipping with these brothers and sisters in Christ, part of me missed my household, particularly when I discovered myself gazing on the lovely full moon within the sky.
My fascination with the moon started in my youth. As a 14-year-old in Taiwan, I watched footage of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon on a neighbor’s black-and-white TV. In that awe-inspiring second, a secret dream to work at NASA was birthed inside me, regardless that it appeared not possible on the time.
In 1987, God fulfilled my dream of working at NASA, the place I ultimately grew to become a analysis and improvement (R&D) lab director. I’ve lengthy regarded humanity’s explorations of the moon not solely as a scientific endeavor, but additionally as an train in trusting God, who has a exceptional approach of weaving collectively our desires and his plans for us right into a tapestry extra lovely than we may ever think about.
Over the moon
Through the Mid-Autumn Pageant, or Moon Pageant, as it’s identified within the West, the moon is at its roundest and brightest, the autumn air is cool and dry, and Chinese language households take pleasure in a time of reunion. The occasion, which falls on September 29 this 12 months, happens on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.
Many Chinese language Christians observe the competition as a cultural celebration, resonating with its themes of familial bonding and gratitude. This emphasis is harking back to US and Canadian Thanksgiving celebrations, the place households collect to present thanks and share a meal collectively.
Apart from traditions like consuming mooncakes, Chinese language individuals may additionally recite poems that extol the fantastic thing about the moon with a tinge of melancholia. A well-liked alternative is famend Track Dynasty poet Su Shi’s “Track of the Water: Mid-Autumn Pageant”:
When does the brilliant moon seem?
I increase my wine to ask the azure sky.
I can not guess what celestial palace reigns,
What 12 months is it tonight up excessive? …In life, there’s pleasure and sorrow, parting and reunion;
The moon could wax or wane, good or crescent;
Such is the way in which of the world, exhausting to understand;
But could all of us endure, until the top of our days;
Sharing the fantastic thing about the moon, although miles aside.
Bittersweet poetry like Su Shi’s usually captures the essence of the season. However one story stands out for its poignant depth: the legend of moon goddess Chang’e.
In response to this Chinese language fantasy, Chang’e was pushed by a craving for everlasting longevity and stole an elixir of life from her husband, Houyi, who had acquired it from the Jade Emperor as a present after taking pictures down 9 suns that had been burning up the earth. Upon consuming the potion, nevertheless, Chang’e discovered herself ascending to the moon, by no means to return to earth once more. There she stays in everlasting solitude, and this story now serves as a reminder of the loneliness that may accompany the search for immortality.
The flight of Chang’e to the moon could also be a fable, however going to the moon is a want that Christians all through the centuries additionally share—and a feat that was completed merely 50 years in the past.
Greater than a moonshot
In our decades-long pursuit of lunar expeditions, one factor that has inspired me is that most of the astronauts and scientists concerned within the American area program had been religious Christians. The vastness of the universe they encountered led them to understand the magnificence of our Creator.
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module of America’s Apollo 11 within the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. The subsequent day, Armstrong stepped onto the floor of the moon and stated the well-known line, “One small step for man, one big leap for mankind.” Aldrin adopted 20 minutes later.
Earlier than the 2 astronauts stepped out onto the lunar floor, nevertheless, Aldrin, who was an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church and had organized together with his pastor to take Communion within the module, remembered Jesus Christ on the moon. He additionally learn two handwritten passages from the Bible, John 15:5 and Psalm 8:3–4: “I’m the vine, you’re the branches. Whoever stays in me, and I in him, will bear a lot fruit; for you are able to do nothing with out me” and “After I think about thy heavens, the works of thy fingers, the moon and the celebs, which thou has ordained; what’s man, that thou artwork conscious of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
A 12 months prior, people had entered lunar orbit and circled the moon for the primary time by way of the Apollo 8 mission. On Christmas Eve in 1968, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders made a stay tv broadcast from the moon’s orbit to Earth and individually recited Genesis 1:1–10. This broadcast gained an Emmy award for the best viewership worldwide on the time.
Later, James Irwin grew to become the eighth man to stroll on the moon as a part of the Apollo 15 moon-landing mission in 1971. Throughout his mission, Irwin skilled an irregular heartbeat but additionally described sensing God’s sturdy presence, which he stated was an influence he’d by no means felt earlier than. A 12 months after returning to Earth, he resigned from his place as colonel and established Excessive Flight Basis, an evangelistic ministry that spreads the gospel worldwide.
Charles Duke grew to become the tenth astronaut to succeed in the moon a 12 months in a while Apollo 16. Following his return to Earth, Duke continued to serve within the US Air Drive Reserve. On February 8, 2021, he preached at a particular gospel gathering at Christian Ministries Church in Scorching Springs, Arkansas, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of his mission’s moon touchdown and urging truth-seekers to return to the true God.
Amongst these luminaries within the Apollo program is one other determine that could be lesser-known however no much less completed: Chinese language American scientist Xinyuan Tang, who was also called Frederick Daybreak. Referred to as the “father of spacesuit cloth” for his comfortable, incombustible Beta material, Tang’s invention helped to deal with the flammability of the unique Apollo spacesuit, which contributed to a deadly fireplace through the first Apollo mission that killed three astronauts.
Tang was a religious Christian and a long-standing member of Clear Lake Chinese language Church close to Houston, which I beforehand served at. Regardless of his achievements, he remained exceedingly humble. “I reward and thank God, for except the Lord builds the home, those that construct it work in useless. It’s by God’s particular grace and steerage that I’ve achieved what I did in the present day, and will all glory be to God,” he stated in an interview with a discontinued Chinese language Christian publication, OK Journal.
After I officiated at Tang’s memorial service, NASA dispatched a airplane to fly a nationwide flag over the House Heart to acknowledge his important contributions to interstellar journey, and later lined his coffin with this flag.
Eternal peace
Gazing on the moon through the Mid-Autumn Pageant jogs my memory that religion in God has helped human beings obtain area explorations, and that peace and unity is to not be taken with no consideration or taken calmly.
The brave Apollo 11 astronauts left an enduring message on the lunar floor with this plaque inscription: “We got here in peace for all mankind.” This occurred through the Chilly Battle period, and the assertion was a hopeful want for peace within the realm of area exploration.
However our actual instance of peace is Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself on the cross to reconcile man and God, as Ephesians 2:14 says: “For he himself is our peace, who has made us each one and has damaged down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”
Within the Bible, this verse refers to eradicating animosity between Jews and Gentiles, and in in the present day’s context, I see it as relevant to our tense geopolitical setting.
One occasion provides me hope that pursuing peace is feasible amid a difficult political local weather. China’s lunar orbiter—aptly named Chang’e—landed on the far aspect of the moon for the primary time in 2019 and despatched out a lunar rover (named Jade Rabbit, who’s the celestial companion of Chang’e within the Chinese language fantasy) to look at the moon’s floor. The China Nationwide House Administration notified NASA of its precise coordinates, enabling the latter to {photograph} the Chinese language area modules from above. You would say that this uncommon collaboration in lunar analysis between China and the US was akin to Apollo assembly Chang’e!
Extra not too long ago, Christian astronaut Victor Glover is headed for the moon very quickly. Subsequent 12 months, he will probably be piloting the Artemis 2 and paving the way in which for future NASA lunar missions. He may also be the primary Black man from the American area company to go to the moon.
Within the huge expanse of the universe, the place stars twinkle like distant desires and the moon beckons with a comfortable glow, my prayer is that our phrases and deeds may also signify a profound sense of Christlike concord and hope, just like the Christian astronauts exemplified once they beheld God’s superb creation in area.
And simply as our reunions through the Mid-Autumn Pageant wrap us in a heat embrace of goodwill and serenity, could our celestial—or non secular—journeys be infused with the ever-present peace of Christ.
James Hwang spent 14 years as a analysis and improvement lab director at NASA’s Johnson House Heart. Following this, he felt known as to ministry and served because the senior pastor of a church in Houston and because the government director for a global Christian broadcasting ministry’s Chinese language division. He now teaches at a number of seminaries and mentors doctoral college students.
