The date was July 20, 1969. A lot of you weren’t even born yet. Some of us were, and some of us remember it.
It was the Apollo 11 mission. The 2 men were astronauts, Buzz Aldrin & Neil Armstrong. They exited the Lunar Module and stepped out onto the moon.
That was pretty amazing!
Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the moon when he said those famous words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant step for mankind.”
Buzz Aldrin was the 2nd man to step down onto the lunar surface, his first words were, “Beautiful view, magnificent desolation.” Evidently it looked pretty desolate.
But, do you know what the first liquid & food that was consumed on the moon?
Let me give you a little background to this story.
Buzz Aldrin was an elder at a church in Texas during this period of his life...
And, knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow...
So, he made arrangements to take the emblems for the Lord’s Supper, some unleavened bread & some grape juice with him on the mission.
He took them with him out of Earth’s orbit and onto the surface of the moon.
He and Neil Armstrong had only been on lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement:
“This is the Lunar Module pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.”
He then ended radio communication, and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from John 15:5 and he took communion.
During the radio blackout he opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread & the juice. He poured the juice into a cup. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the juice slowly curled & gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then he read the scripture.
Verse 5 of John 15 reads,
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit ... Apart from me you can do nothing.”
