Today in History

I have a new thingie on my home page that tells me things that happened on "this day in history." Now, I'm writing this on Sunday where I live, but on the east coast it is already Monday morning (sorry, folks in the east). This day in 1986 marks the day that the space shuttle Challenger broke apart and exploded after launch.

That was my first "big world-scale crisis," and I was in my first year of college. I had gone back to my dorm room either after or between classes (couldn't tell ya really, too long ago), and I turned on my little brown, wood-grain-like, square radio. The announcement came on and, like they do, told us what had happened. I remember my first thought was "No! Things like that don't happen!"

It was a very sad day. Christa MacAuliffe was on board; she was an elementary school teacher (which I had aspired to be until just a few weeks ago). The kids in her classroom were watching the launch on TV. Her parents, husband and children were there, not to mention the families of all the other astronauts. It was horrible.

But afterward was worse. That was the first launch ever made with a civilian. Afterward, NASA stopped all launches for two or three years, until they could fix the problem (O rings, I think), and there was no possibility of a civilian flying again.

In 1988 or 1989 (I was married by then), the tried a launch again. I remember sitting on our bed with my husband, watching the 19-inch black & white TV, watching the space shuttle climb higher and higher, crying and praying it would all be OK. It flew higher and higher, did its little 1/4 turn, kept going...

It all worked okay.

Which reminds me of the Ron Howard movie, Apollo 13. In that movie, of course, three astronauts are aboard a spacecraft that explosively malfunctions, requiring superhuman feats to get the astronauts back to Earth safely. There are problems upon problems in this situation, yet we (or more specifically, Gene Kranz) did not give up. He pushed his fellow NASA workers and pushed and pushed them, not accepting any "we can't do that" answer. He didn't permit anyone to give up. He refused to acknowledge defeat. He would not even consider defeat. At times it seemed that his will alone got those men back to Earth safely. It was amazing to see, that kind of drive, that kind of will, even that kind of power.

Why do I walk with Jesus? Because if you take that kind of tenacity, that will that would only allow success, that would not let go of the idea of success, if you take that and substitute love, then you can begin to understand how much Jesus loves his creation, you and me. He won't let go. He won't give up. No matter what I have done wrong (and there has been plenty), no matter what tragedy I have gone through, He is there with me. Always. He won't give up. He won't leave.

Even more tenacious than Gene Kranz. Just thought I'd share.