Sometimes, the most profound truths about humanity—and God—are revealed when we take a small step back. Or rocket ourselves about 238,000 miles into space.
Astronaut James Lovell had that epiphany 50 years ago as he became one of the first astronauts to orbit the moon.
“I remembered a saying I’d often heard: ‘I hope to go to heaven when I die.’ I suddenly realized that I went to heaven when I was born,” said Lovell. He spoke at the Washington National Cathedral recently as part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Apollo 8 mission that sent Lovell and fellow astronauts William Anders and Frank Borman into space to circle Earth’s gray satellite.