WHAT I SEE THAT I DON’T SEE

In the previous blog, entitled “What is missing?” I provided a YouTube of what 10,000 days on Mars would be like. At first, I was struck with the sheer brilliance of the future vision and some of the milestones we humans would have to achieve to get us there and maintain our existence in this hostile environment.

Each of us will look at YouTube and have a different take on it. We look at it with the totality of who we are and the results of our choices about the video. In this sense, it is like Faith. God is one, there is one Lord, but each sees and responds to that God in slightly different ways. There is no right way or wrong way to the question of “What is missing?” I hope you took the time to view this YouTube and think about what is not there in the wonderful vision for the future.

When I viewed the video, I had these thoughts.

It is a wonderful representation of what it takes to be the first to undertake this pioneering journey, much like settlers did in moving from East to West in our recent history in the United States.

I was reminded of the words of Joel Barker, futurist and one of the most influential persons in my life, when he said, “There are only two types of people who settled the West; those who were first to break new ground, establish pathways, settle small waysides for those who follow after them. There are the settlers who did not break new ground but benefited from the pain and wanderings of the pioneers. (I paraphrase, of course). These pioneers to Mars confirm what has always been true of humanity–that it seeks to explore what is out there. This is true of the first settlers of Mars and science in its quest to explore the boundaries of getting there with new technologies.

I had excellent feelings about this YouTube video, but then it struck me. Everything looks too antiseptic and fantasy-like. YouTube did not have some of the most important components of being human, and it did not look like our world on earth at all. There was no appreciation of Original Sin, the masterful commentary on what it means to be humans with the consequences accompanying how we live out each day.

There is no recognition of sin, grace, or human evil as the result of choice by Adam and Eve. It is like the Garden of Eden before the fall.

Unless God builds a house, says the Psalmist, you labor in vain to build it.

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

I

Unless the LORD build the house,

they labor in vain who build.

Unless the LORD guard the city,

in vain does the guard keep watch.

2It is vain for you to rise early

and put off your rest at night,

To eat bread earned by hard toil—

all this God gives to his beloved in sleep.^a

II

3Certainly sons are a gift from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb, a reward.^b

4Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the sons born in one’s youth.

5Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them.

He will never be shamed

for he will destroy his foes at the gate.^*

Let’s keep all this wonderful, new speculation in the context of the cross and the Resurrection.

uiodg