The Journey 207
Thursday, July 26
Read: John 1: 1-18
July 20 is a very special day not only for the people of this nation but for the whole world. It was on July 20, 1969, forty three years back, that a new chapter in the history of space was created. For the first time human beings could land on the moon.  It was Neil Armstrong who created history by becoming the first man to walk on the moon. He along with Colonel Aldrin landed their lunar module “ Eagle” on the moon and spend almost 21 hours in the surface of the moon.  The world still has not been able to forget the graphic image of the Armstrong planting the American flag on the surface of the moon. This was a dream come true of the vision of President Kennedy who stated in 1961, that he would want to put a man on moon and then return him back safely on the earth, at least by the end of the decade. According to Neil Armstrong; this was one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.  When he addressed the joint session of the Congress on September 16th, 1969, he declared that “To those of you who have advocated looking high, we owe our sincere gratitude, for you have granted us the opportunity to see some of the grandest views of the creator.  Here is an astronaut thanking his people because he could view the grandest view that our creator God made, which nobody else could see. I believe walking on moon has been historic, because it represents the innovations, the giant leap the science and technology, that was transforming human life by leaps and bounds. But I think when Astronaut Aldrin came to address the Maramon convention, one of the words that he spoke still rings my ears. Colonel Aldrin on that day at Maramon Convention stated that the people consider that man walking on the moon as the greatest achievement in history. But Aldrin said that more historic than man walking on the moon, was the fact that God walked in human form on the earth. Those word still ring my ears. God walking on earth. I think yes that is more historic for me and that has what has revolutionized my living and my faith.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living”. The passage that we shall use for our meditation is from  John 1: 1-18. This is a passage where John reflects on the incarnation of Jesus Christ on the earth.  Here is a poignant references by John, when he states that the true light that gives light to every man came to the world, but the sad part of this history is that the world did not recognize him, his own did not recognize him, nor receive him, yet he gave us the right to be called the children of God and to be part of God’s family.[ John 1: 10-13]. But John states that “ we have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only from the Father, full of grace and truth” [  John 1: 14]. Here is God walking on the earth to make us the members of His family but people don't see him, recognize him, nor respond to his love. I think even after 2000 years after Jesus walked on this earth, we still fail to recognize this historical fact, neither is our life transformed by this historical fact. Today our life is transformed more by the technology of the apple products, or the android applications of Samsung, than Jesus Christ. Our life has been made comfortable by the different appliance of various companies, and our life is  moving from one level of comfort to higher level of comfort, but on the level of transformed living we are still in the infancy level. Let us at this time consciously remember that our Lord walked on this earth,  so that we all could have conscious relationship with Him, thus enabling us to be part of both history and eternity, by being called the children of God. Let us think whether we have been able to be part of the historic event of God walking on earth– by having a relationship with Jesus Christ or is that historic event is just another event in history?. Man walking on moon or God walking on earth– which is a miracle.?