Around the world during Lent

Last night’s Grand Rapids PRESS alerted me to a most interesting phenomenon. The International Space Station (ISS) was on course to fly directly overhead. Not wanting to miss this event, I sat out on the back deck - enthralled - up above, stars twinkled and a thin crescent moon smiled down on me. Meteorologist, Bill Steffen, had informed viewers to look to the NW. Sure enough, at precisely 8:58p.m., the ISS appeared – moving straight towards me as it travelled to the SE – visible for a full three minutes. After it had passed out of sight, I wondered if there might be a way of tracking it online. A quick internet search revealed this site: http://www.heavens-above.com/. What a fascinating revelation! For the next hour and a half, I followed the course of the ISS around the globe.
Tracking its flight, I was reminded of my visit to the Kennedy Space Center back in October, where I was able to enter a replica of a small portion of the ISS. Memories of NASA’s early history also came to mind…. In the early days of the space race – formative years for me, growing up in the 1960s - some Western sources claimed that Russian Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, during the first manned space flight, had made the comment, "I don't see any God up here." He might not have seen God, but he missed the point. God sees. God knows. Isn’t it comforting to know that “the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
(2 Chronicles 16: 9)

Having been captivated by last night’s spectacle, I’ve been giving the Heavens Above homepage an occasional glance and see that the ISS continues to circumnavigate planet Earth, like some giant eye in the sky, over two hundred miles high in orbit, at 17227 mi per hour – that’s sixteen orbits of the Earth during each 24 hour period.

For some reason, all this makes me think of Christians all over the world – across the various continents where the global church is alive and well today. I wonder how these brothers and sisters are commemorating this Lenten season. This gives me pause to consider the church through out the ages as well – professing an ancient creed – “…I believe a holy catholic church, the communion of saints….” Omniscient, omnipresent God, who transcends time and space, sees…. knows….. Here is a source of joy and gratitude for me as I continue with some Lenten practices – a sense of solidarity and community shared by the body of Christ – through out time and space.