Christmas for Christian Astronauts

 

It was Christmas Eve 1968 when Apollo 8 had just entered the orbit of the moon.  Astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman took turns reading from the book of Genesis they had smuggled on board. Just a stunt?  Madalyn Murray O’Hair and the American Atheists thought it was a government endorsement of religion, and they sued NASA. What would possess 3 pilots to read scripture?  Put it this way.  You get strapped inside a capsule with almost no escape.  The Saturn V rocket goes off beneath you with 6 million pounds of thrust.  You mission is either to succeed or you’ll die.  Would you reach for God? 70 miles high, seeing the jaw-dropping splendor of earth, would you reach for happenstance or God as an explanation?

            Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11, were the first two men on the moon. Before they stepped out of the capsule Buzz produced a Bible and communion kit which they used to do communion.  On August 2nd, 1971, Apollo 15 Mission Commander David Scott left a Bible on the Lunar Rover during an Extravehicular Activity. He wanted to read a sermon on Sunday. He was aboveboard with his plans and wanted to broadcast the service to earth, but was dissuaded by a fellow crew member and Mission Control in Houston.  There was also the microfilm bible that Ed White wanted to take to the moon, but he died in a fire that destroyed Apollo 1.  It was auctioned for charity.  In April 1994 three Catholic astronauts celebrated Mass on a Space Shuttle Mission.  Again in 2013 the International Space Station got consecrated wafers for Mass.  Russian Orthodox Christmas was celebrated on the International Space Station, in 2011.  Cosmonauts had the day off, but one of the other crew tweeted, "Merry Christmas to all Russia." The entire crew had also celebrated on December 25, two weeks prior.

                 James Irwin was the astronaut who didn’t reach for God but God reached for him.  He was raised Christian, but  James stopped going to church when he was ten. He wanted to be an astronaut and was selected for training in 1966.  In 1971 he became the eighth man to walk on the moon. His picture saluting the American Flag is famous.  In awe at the scenery, his job was to collect rock samples.  He saw a whitish stone and suddenly felt something compelling. “I felt the touch of somebody, God, tap me on my shoulder and said – look there.” And so Irwin picked up the stone and brought it home.  Geologic analysis showed it to be anorthosite of extreme age, 4.5 billion years by radioisotope dating.  The Genesis Rock, as it was named, dates the moon as the product of collision debris of earth and a small planetoid.  But God wasn’t done with Jim. Outside their spacesuits, the temperature on the lunar surface was 150 degrees. “He perspired like crazy,” wife Mary Irwin explained. “He was losing his electrolyte balance. An imbalance of sodium and potassium can trigger a heart attack.” Flight surgeons on earth who monitored the men were alarmed when they saw both astronauts develop irregular heart rhythms. Irwin’s situation was more severe, with abnormal heartbeats every other beat. Neither man was told about their condition by Mission Control. The sight of earth made Irwin fill with acceptance that God did control everything. At one point, he had trouble with a planned experiment that wouldn’t erect.  A piece was missing or something. “God, I need your help right now!” Suddenly Irwin experienced the presence of Jesus Christ in a remarkable way, unlike anything he ever felt on earth. “The Lord showed him the solution to the problem and the experiment erected before him like a little altar,” Mary says. “He was so overwhelmed at seeing and feeling God’s presence so close,” she says. “At one point he turned around and looked over his shoulder as if He was standing there.” This unusual encounter with Jesus – some 238,000 miles from earth, changed Irwin’s life forever. It healed his cold marriage, he resigned from NASA to form High Flight Foundation, which is on a quest to reach the world as goodwill ambassadors for the Prince of Peace. “God decided that He would send His Son Jesus Christ to the blue planet,” Irwin related, “and it’s through faith in Jesus Christ that we can relate to God.  Jesus Himself said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes unto the Father except through me.’  I tell people Jesus walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon.” Or as Charlie Duke said, “Walking on the moon was 3 days.  Walking with Jesus Christ is forever.”

            Irwin bought a home and acreage near the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and when Mary began to write, built her a cabin up on the ridge above their house—a writer’s retreat.  Jim died in 1991 of the heart condition that had started on the moon.  He ministered 20 years about the spiritual heart condition.  They had 5 children. Some still live around Colorado Springs.  Christian author Mary now lives in Florida in retirement. This writer has accumulated these facts from his son who owns the Irwin property in Colorado Springs today, as well as other sources.