Christmas Adventure

Christmas Eve, 1968. I was a college freshman and my parents, three siblings, and I were packed into the family car. We were a thousand miles from home in Los Angeles, off on an adventure—Disneyland for Christmas!

We’d all done well on the trip in spite of winter road conditions and travel weariness. But now it was dark and rainy. We were hungry. And we wanted to get to our hotel.

And one more thing. We were lost.

Lost in LA

We’d gotten off the freeway in Los Angeles for reasons long since forgotten. The rain fell as we drove through the starless night, driving aimlessly through neighborhoods. We were looking for the onramp to get back onto the freeway.

Poor Dad. He finally stopped at a motel to ask for the directions but the proprietor couldn’t help. “In all the years I’ve lived here I’ve never learned north from south. You’ll have to ask someone else,” he said.

It seemed we were hopelessly lost. “I just don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Dad dejectedly.

Tim’s “Ticker”

Twelve-year-old Tim had been asleep ever since we got to LA. Now he lifted his head from the seat back. “Dad, just go two blocks ahead, turn right, go another block, and the onramp will be on your left.”

With no better idea of his own, Dad obeyed and voilà. Tim’s directions got us to the freeway entrance.

“That was amazing, Tim! How did you do that?” we all shouted.

“Well, I have a “ticker”¹ in my head and it’s working.”

That’s all I ever knew about finding our way in Los Angeles on a starless Christmas Eve. That is, until a month ago.

The Truth

Tim was with us for Thanksgiving. Our “Lost in LA” story came up in conversation. We extolled Tim’s “ticker” to the younger members of the family.

Tim interrupted. “Yes, my ticker was working that night, but that’s not all there is to the story. I had been resting—not sleeping—as Dad was looking for the way out of the neighborhood. I saw him loop around the same blocks several times. In his anxiety to find the freeway he didn’t notice the sign. But I’d seen it every time we’d passed it so I knew the way.”

And so we found our way to Interstate 5 and a memorable vacation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When God Pulled Back the Curtain

At the same time we were driving in circles in Los Angeles, three men were circling the moon. The astronauts of Apollo 8 had blasted off on December 21. By Christmas Eve they had made the 240,000 miles trip to the moon, and they spent Christmas Eve orbiting it. Apollo 8 made ten trips around the moon, getting photos and data for NASA.

As they came out from behind the moon on their fourth trip they saw a sight no one had ever seen before. Earth was rising, in the same way the sun rises on the horizon. Bill Anders grabbed the camera with the color film and got the iconic photo that has come to be known as Earthrise.

These men were the first humans to travel outside Earth’s orbit, the first to see the back side of the moon, and the first to see Earth from space.

“And all people will see it together”²

But this is not all that made the Apollo 8 mission so outstanding.

The astronauts had been asked to share something “appropriate” from space to the world on Christmas Eve. They shared their live message with the world via television, reading the first ten verses of the creation story as recorded in Genesis 1 as they gave us a look at moon and the earthrise.

An estimated billion people, a quarter of the world’s population in 1968, saw it.

In a matter of a few moments the world saw the earth as no human had ever seen it before, and they heard the words of Scripture that affirm God as the Creator of the world. On Christmas Eve, 1968, God pulled back the curtain and showed us his handiwork, narrated by his Word.

You might also enjoy this video which sheds more light on the Apollo 8 mission and closes with the Christmas Eve message.

Rejoice with me over the wonder that God created our beautiful world and sent his Son to us to be our Savior. Such love!

Merry Christmas!
Ginger

P.S. Do you remember your Christmas Eve, 1968? I invite you to share your story in the comments.

¹That was he first time I ever remember Tim talking about his “ticker.” It’s what he calls his uncanny sense of direction.
²Isa 40:5