Spaceship Earth

Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the Universe of time and for brief moment we have been among its many passengers. From the very beginning we have always sought to reach out to one another - to bridge the gaps between us - to communicate.

Across a lonely, hostile planet our early ancestors spread out in search of food and shelter. With the development of language came a vital key to our survival. For the first time we could share and learn from one another. We bonded together in small tribes and prospered. No longer isolated - no longer alone.

Ages later, the Egyptians invented the first written communications - a complex language of hieroglyphic pictures and symbols. With the creation of papyrus scrolls came the worlds first piece of paper. Now, without ever leaving their palaces, Pharoes could deliver their proclamations and decrees to subjects across the land.

Phoenician merchants established the earliest commercial highways, trading goods and information at distant ports of call. To aid in record keeping, they created the first common alphabet and shared this new tool across the Mediterranean. In ancient Greece, the spoken word was elevated to a fine art. Philosophers debated with one another in Plazas and storytellers found a new forum of expression - the theatre was born.

The mighty Roman Empire bridged three continents with a vast system of roads. The fastest information highways the world had ever known. East, West, North & South all roads led to Rome. But these same roads were turned against Rome by invaders whose destruction left ages of knowledge and wisdom in the ashes that would become the dark ages.

But all was not lost for from far across the land Jewish teachers continued the quest for knowledge. In libraries of wisdom they debated ideas and shared new discoveries with all who would listen. In western abbeys, monks toiled endlessly in lonely isolation copying ancient books of wisdom and revelation for future generations. Finally, from the depths of the dark ages came the age of enlightenment- the Renaissance.

With this era came a powerful new invention - the movable type printing press. Scientists, explorers and scholars spread their discoveries in books and essays. Poets, musicians and artists, fuelled by the passion of the age created timeless works of beauty and majesty. On this wave of inspiration we sailed into a bold new era of communication bringing an explosion of tools and technologies which would bridge people around the world as never before and as our appetite for information and knowledge grew the world began to shrink. Today we possess the ability to connect with one another instantly, anywhere on the planet. But our communications systems are now being challenged to the limits by our excursions into space. Via the information superhighway, the Internet, we have been communicating with NASA over the past year obtaining day by day progress reports on the Galileo spacecraft's mission to Jupiter.

Initially launched on board the space shuttle Atlantis on October 18, 1989, Galileo had to spend three years making flybys of Venus and Earth before it had sufficient speed to swing outward toward Jupiter. Galileo arrived at Jupiter, on December 7, 1995 and started transmitting data about our planetary neighbour and its moons.

Due to the distances involved the data took almost an hour to reach earth and required an aerial the size of a football field to detect its energy.

Our communications are now being limited by the speed of light but there is one other form of communication that the Christian can use. Man has never really been alone on this planet. We were created to communicate with one another but we were also created to communicate with God. Our quest for knowledge has revealed the vastness and majesty of space involving distances so huge that our minds cannot grasp their enormity. And yet, the God who created the Universe and revealed himself in Jesus Christ has provided each of us with the most powerful communications highway of all time. Through prayer we can communicate with God at any time and anywhere. The line is never engaged or ineffective and He is always available to take our call.

Adapted from "Spaceship Earth", EPCOT, Walt Disney World, Florida.