We’ve been dealing with a difficult subject this week, so let’s change the tone today with this announcement: I have solved the drought problem plaguing much of our country. We simply need to siphon water from a galaxy 12 billion light-years away, where the most massive cloud of water yet discovered in the universe resides. According to today’s National Geographic website, the cloud would fill 140 trillion Earth oceans.
How do we get the water back to our planet? I’ll cite Will Rogers, who told our military that we could solve our problem with Nazi subs by boiling the oceans. When the subs bob to the surface, we could then pick them off. A reporter asked, “How do you propose to boil the oceans?” Will smiled and replied, “I’ve given you the solution. It’s up to you to work out the details.”
Apparently the Space Station won’t be part of those details. The Russian space agency has announced that it will allow the ISS to fall into the ocean when it completes its mission in 2020. Left in space, it poses too great a risk to satellites and future space travel. It recently experienced its own close encounter with space junk—just last month, a piece of debris came so close that the station’s six-member crew prepared to use their rescue craft.
Speaking of close encounters with dangerous junk, did you hear about the Texas jail guard who smuggled tacos packed with hacksaw blades into prison? An inmate’s girlfriend put the saws in the tacos and bribed the guard with pain killers. This is the third conviction in two months involving guards in the San Antonio jail. Earlier this week, a guard was found guilty of smuggling a cell phone in a pack of Ramen Noodles; two months ago, another guard was found guilty of smuggling heroin in tacos.
Unless you can figure out a way to transport water from distant galaxies, keep the Space Station functioning forever, or stop guards from accepting bribes, today’s stories are not very relevant to your life this morning. Here’s a fact that is: You will be alive when the heavens above and the earth below are replaced one day by a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). There will be no jails in your next home: “On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there” (v. 25).
If Jesus is your Lord, you will never die (John 11:26). Others may visit your grave, like the archaeologists who recently discovered the tomb of St. Philip the Apostle in Turkey. His tomb in Hierapolis is an astounding discovery. But here’s the best news of all: He wasn’t there.
In the moment you asked Jesus to be your Savior, you received eternal life (John 3:16). So take heart: The worst thing that can happen to you today will lead to the best thing that can happen to you today. As Justin the Martyr told the Roman emperor: “You can kill us, but you cannot harm us.” This is the promise of God.
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