Message summary: Today we consider the lesser light.

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"And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also" (Genesis 1:16). "When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?" (Psalm 8:4).

Today is the fifty-seventh anniversary of man's first walking on the moon. When he stepped onto the moon Neal Armstrong famously said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind". Surely these were words fitly spoken.

I was fourteen at the time and like most I recall that day as a tremendous milestone. I was visiting my grandparents in their little white frame house in Harwood, Missouri at the time of the landing and we watched it happen on a small blurry, black and white television.

My grandpa, George Washington Steincross, was born in 1882 and during his adult lifetime he witnessed (read about) Wilbur and Orville Wright's first manned flight and through the many advancements in flight up to seeing man land on the moon, which is first identified in Scripture as "the lesser light" (Genesis 1:16) on that July day. He died less than two years later in 1971.

Ester, who has a special interest in lunar photography took this photo in our backyard years ago. Living out in the country we often have good moon views but not nearly as stunning as at Cherry Springs State Park, a dark sky park, we visited several years ago in northern PA.

We can sense our relative puniness as mere humans when we consider the vast immensity of space! Consider today's second Scripture in Psalm 8:4. Then consider looking up from a field on a clear, cloudless night, overcome by an intense sense of awe toward Almighty God, corresponding with an awareness of our own relative insignificance.

We extol God's most massive works at creation described as "the work of your fingers". We recognize that God has set these objects in place, "Which you have set in place". They are not "set in place" as the result of some "big bang" or whatever current scientific theory is presently in vogue.

The Psalmist then considers man. Why is God mindful of us? Why does this great Creator God care for us? The Psalmist doesn't answer these questions and neither can we. But the Scriptures abundantly reveal that God is indeed mindful of us and genuinely cares for each of us: Enough so that He gave His Redeemer Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

That's good news. In fact that's great news, the greatest news we could ever hear or read about. Today man's greatest hope is certainly not the achievement of placing a man on the moon, but the eternal sacrifice of the One placed on the cross. Whatever circumstances you are dealing with today we encourage you to immerse yourself in this great perspective.

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13.

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber