“I Look Up To The Heavens” featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album ” I Look Up To The Heavens” recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson

If I may start by saying that Risen! The Musical is being broadcast on Revelation TV as I type. It is on Sky 581 and Freeview 281 – it can also be viewed live on- line but unfortunately Sir Richard has not got his act together so at present Virgin are not broadcasting Revelation TV. Its next on Saturday March 18th at 5.30 pm

It would have been my mother’s birthday – I will tell you her amazing testimony next week, as today I would like to finish sharing the article on John Glenn that I began last week.

Glenn, who died in December 2016 aged 95 was on his first orbit of space in February 1962 when his heat shield was thought to have come loose and many believed it might fail during the reentry which would cause Glenn’s capsule to be incinerated in its fiery descent. Glenn was told to take manual control of the capsule and described a “real fire ball” outside as he reentered the atmosphere. He prayed and thankfully his prayers were answered as he splashed down safely in the Caribbean. Shortly after that mission he gave a talk on “Why I know there is a God.” In this he explained why being in space confirmed his faith in God.

Our galaxy is some 100000 light years in diameter.. we realise how difficult it is to visualise the tremendous scale of the universe beyond our solar system. The limits of the telescopically observable universe extend at least two billion light years from us in all directions. Glenn says Come back to what we know of atomic particles, the smallest particles known. Atoms have a great similarity to our solar system in that they have electrons rotating about a nucleus in regular patterns. Now what is the point of what I am saying? It is the orderliness of the whole universe about us, from the smallest atomic structure to the most enormous thing we can imagine. Could this have just happened? Was it an accident that a bunch of flotsam and jetsam suddenly started making these orbits on their own accord? I can’t believe that. This was a definite plan. This is one big thing in space that shows me there is a God. Some power put all this in orbit and keeps it there.

Glenn firmly believes what the Bible tells us about this: Through Him (Jesus) God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else and He holds all creation together (Colossians 16:16-17).

In 1998 Glenn returned to space on the space shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission becoming at age 77 the oldest person to travel in space. He told reporters – Looking at the Earth from this vantage point – looking at this kind of creation and to not believe in God to me is impossible. To see Earth laid out like that only strengthens my beliefs.

Actually it was looking up to the heavens some 18 years ago that I was inspired to write today’s featured song “I look up to the heavens.”