{"id":1506,"date":"2022-03-24T08:57:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T12:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1506"},"modified":"2022-03-24T08:57:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T12:57:43","slug":"one-giant-leap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/24\/one-giant-leap\/","title":{"rendered":"One Giant Leap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do\u00a0you remember that dreadful moment when you randomly grabbed a VHS tape to record a basketball game on your VCR, only to discover that you had just taped over the one and only copy of your daughter\u2019s dance recital?
\u00a0
Wait until you hear what NASA did.
\u00a0
The story begins with Neil Armstrong\u2019s historic first step onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.
\u00a0
NASA had built a special camera that was affixed to the side of the Lunar Module.\u00a0 It is still there right now on the moon.\u00a0 The camera worked perfectly.\u00a0 Pristine footage of Armstrong\u2019s descent down the ladder was relayed back to earth.
\u00a0
The rest of humanity, of course, hoped to share in this epochal moment via live television.\u00a0 But the space camera recorded in an odd format, one that couldn\u2019t be converted directly into TV signals.\u00a0 As a result, the images were degraded.
\u00a0
If you got to experience that historic moment in your own family room, you might remember squinting at the TV screen.\u00a0 \u201cI guess that\u2019s Armstrong\u2019s foot\u2026OK, it looks like he\u2019s moving\u2026\u201d\u00a0

The images were blurry at best.\u00a0 The excitement, of course, trumped any real disappointment.\u00a0 Besides, NASA still has those beautiful original tapes.
\u00a0
At least they thought they did.\u00a0
\u00a0
Do you recall that spacious warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/em>?\u00a0 There really is such a place.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the Washington National Records Center.\u00a0 The archival footage of the Apollo 11 flight was presumably stored there in a box.
\u00a0
In the early 1980s, however, America put a number of new satellites into orbit.\u00a0 They were tasked with capturing images of the earth\u2019s surface.\u00a0
\u00a0
Since there was a critical shortage of magnetic tape at the time, technicians began to plunder the boxes in the Records Center, scrounging any tape that might be reused.\u00a0 It\u2019s estimated that 40,000 boxes of archival footage of one sort or another were ultimately transformed into our spy satellites\u2019 equivalent of Google Earth.\u00a0
\u00a0
Around 2009, NASA sadly concluded that one of the \u201chome movies\u201d that people would undoubtedly want to watch for centuries to come \u2013 the first human steps in the Sea of Tranquility \u2013 had almost certainly been taped over and lost forever.
\u00a0
That\u2019s when NASA went to Plan B.\u00a0 They collected the best remaining TV broadcast footage and headed for Hollywood.
\u00a0
Space technicians asked some of the film industry\u2019s wizards to see what they could do to improve the quality of the existing images.\u00a0 They ultimately chose to work with the same lab that had helped restore Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, <\/em>the original Star Wars<\/em> pictures, and 20 of the James Bond films.
\u00a0
More than 100 computers were used to digitally process what people watched back in 1969.\u00a0 The results were better than anyone dared to hope.\u00a0 Notice the image above.\u00a0 Neil Armstrong has just stepped into the lunar dust.\u00a0 Now we can even see the reflection on his helmet visor.

It’s a restoration project that everyone can celebrate.\u00a0\u00a0

But it doesn’t hold a candle to the restoration project that God promises to everyone who turns to Jesus.

The apostle Paul says that those who entrust themselves to Christ will receive the gift of\u00a0\u201ca new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10).\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
All of us are image-bearers of the One who made us.\u00a0 But that extraordinary reality – one of the things that sets humans apart from everything else in God’s creation – has been tarnished by sin.\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s fingerprints on our souls, so to speak, have been marred and degraded.\u00a0

But God has a total restoration in mind.\u00a0

If we will let him, and if we choose to pursue the kinds of spiritual practices that will help us pay attention to him hour by hour, he is able and willing to transform our hearts from the blurry images we\u2019re used to experiencing into brilliant reflections of his glory.
\u00a0
And that will turn out to be a truly giant leap for all mankind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do\u00a0you remember that dreadful moment when you randomly grabbed a VHS tape to record a basketball game on your VCR, only to discover that you had just taped over the one and only copy of your daughter\u2019s dance recital?\u00a0Wait until you hear what NASA did.\u00a0The story begins with Neil Armstrong\u2019s historic first step onto the surface of the moon on… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[418],"class_list":["post-1506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-spiritual-renewal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1508,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions\/1508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}