“The Eve of Christmas”
December 24, 2020
Christmas Eve has long been my favorite day of the year! The anticipation of Christmas day, memories of my brothers and parents attending a church service at midnight, and then returning home to gather around our fireplace while each of us opened one gift, ate some cookies, and drank hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course). Those Christmas Eves are now serene memories of more peaceful times!
It is probably safe to say that 2020 has been anything but peaceful, in all that surrounds us, and perhaps, even in our own hearts at times. It is also probably safe to say, that 1968, 52 years ago, was also not very peaceful as the United States had experienced an extremely turbulent year. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated, the war in Vietnam had escalated, and race riots had broken out in many cities across the country.
However, there was one unifying event that brought together tens of thousands of spectators, including two Supreme Court Justices and Charles Lindbergh, a pioneer of aviation. That event was the launch of Apollo 8 on December 21, 1968!
Three astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell Jr., and Bill Anders boarded a spacecraft which became the first manned flight to have ever left the Earth’s gravitational field! On December 24, Christmas Eve, the astronauts became the first humans to see the dark side of the moon (I always thought that was just a dessert) and to circle it 10 times. They had also become the first to see the Earth, from a distance, as a whole planet (like a big blue marble in space).
The Apollo 8 crew had taken a TV camera into space and did six live broadcasts over the course of the mission. One of the six broadcasts was aired during prime time on Christmas Eve to an audience of one billion, or one out of every four people living on the planet at the time.
The astronauts were told that on Christmas Eve they would have the largest audience that had ever listened to a human voice, and the only instructions they received from NASA was to do something “appropriate”. So the men pointed their camera out the window and filmed the moon’s mountains, craters, and seas and then ended their broadcast by taking turns reading the first ten verses of Genesis 1. They said they selected this particular passage because it was the foundation of “many of the world’s religions,” and not just Christianity, and thus they deemed it “appropriate” to read. Of course, not everyone agreed with this reasoning and the well-known atheist, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, filed a lawsuit over the reading.
Below is the actual recording link you may click in order to listen to the two minute broadcast. The transcript of their reading follows the video.
Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Message
TRANSCRIPT
Bill Anders
“We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
Jim Lovell
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
Frank Borman
“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”
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This year, 2020, and 1968 may go down in history as years which lacked peace and were very turbulent. However, take heart, because Jesus grants peace unlike any peace the world or the universe can offer, and therefore we need not be afraid!
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
(John 14: 27)