What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year. – Anonymous
It was 1968 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Christmas Eve. Astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman were the first manned mission to the moon. Frank Borman said to the world, “The crew of Apollo 8 will have a message for you.”
That evening the Apollo 8 astronauts read from the Bible in the book of Genesis during a television broadcast. Astronauts Bill Anders read verses 1-4, Jim Lovell read verses 5-8 and Frank Borman finished out with verses 9-10. Reports say approximately one billion people in 64 countries watched the broadcast.
Anders’s words started with, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, we are sending a message 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. The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light; and there was light. God saw that the light was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.’”
Jim Lovell spoke next: “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 from the waters. And God made the firmament and divided the waters from 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 concluded with, “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 seas: and God saw that it was good. Immediately after reading Genesis Borman said, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with a good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you and your good earth.”
Commander Borman finished with “Give us, O God, the vision which can see thy love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts and show us what each one of us can do to set forth the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
