It was Christmas Eve, 1968. American astronauts, orbiting the moon, had just
read from the first chapter of Genesis. There was a wave of favorable reaction.
The Space Center at Houston was crowded with reporters. From the beginning of
the American space effort other nations had been watching with interest. One
nation in particular, which I shall not name, seemed especially fascinated by
all that was going on. Its reporters, of course, were on hand in Houston that
evening. They didn't understand just what the astronauts had been reading, but
they were caught up in the enthusiasm of others and somehow sensed that it must
be something very important.
They waited in the hallway for a change of shifts, hoping to speak to someone
about what had just occurred. When a NASA official approached them, one of them
stepped up and said politely, "Tell us, sir, would it be possible to obtain a
script of what the astronauts were reading?"
The official suppressed a smile and said with a straight face, "Yes. When you go
back to your hotel room, you will find on the nightstand, or possibly in the
drawer of the nightstand, a black-bound Book. Just open that and on the first
page you will find the script from which they read."
The reporters were profuse in their appreciation. "Thank you so much," they
said. "It was so thoughtful of NASA to provide the astronauts' script in our
hotel room!"
We smile. But seriously, wasn't it thoughtful of God to tell us just how He
created the earth, and then to make the record of Creation so easily available
that the Gideons could place a copy in every hotel room?
By Marjorie Lewis Lloyd, Signs of the Times, March 1977. With permission from
Dale Galusha dalgal@pacificpress.com
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