Posted April 07, 2026
Four astronauts aboard Artemis 2 are on their way home this morning. They broke the record for human travel on Monday afternoon, flying more than 248,655 miles from Earth and surpassing NASA’s Apollo 13 mission in 1970. Orion flew behind the moon last night, losing communications with our planet for forty minutes while reaching its maximum distance from our planet, 252,756 miles away.
Commander Reid Wiseman told President Trump, “We saw sights that no human has ever seen.”
The crewmembers are sharing a cabin roughly the size of two minivans. They sleep in bags attached to the wall of the craft, exercise on a flywheel machine, and share a toilet (with private doors). Their flight is historic not only for its distance into space but for the composition of their crew, which includes the first woman, the first Canadian, and the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon.
Speaking of the latter: Victor Glover Jr. is the pilot for the mission and was the first Black astronaut to complete a long-term stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It is hard to imagine a more accomplished individual:
In addition, Glover and his wife, Dionna, have four children.
The part of Victor Glover’s story I want to highlight today, however, is his faith.
When he was on the ISS, he took communion each week, noting that NASA “supported me and my family’s desire to continue to worship and to continue our faith walk even while I was off the planet. That was really important to me.”
Glover told a Texas church audience, “We have a sin nature, and we need Jesus. Jesus is that bridge that spans sin.” In a podcast interview, he stated, “My career is fed by my faith, and you know, anytime I do something that’s pretty risky, I pray—before I fly, every time I fly. I fly airplanes a few times a week. Definitely when you go sit on top of a rocket ship.”
Then he added, “In the military, there’s a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. There aren’t any on top of rockets, either, I would think.”
On this Tuesday after Easter Sunday, what was Jesus doing?
As we noted yesterday, after our Lord’s resurrection “he presented himself alive to [his apostles] after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Monday we focused on the first part of this verse; today let’s focus on the second: “speaking about the kingdom of God.”
In this way, Jesus ended his earthly ministry the way he started it.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry with the proclamation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17; “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” refer to the same reality). His announcement points to the fact stated across Scripture that God is the king of the universe.
For example, the psalmist declared, “The Lᴏʀᴅ reigns; he is robed in majesty” (Psalm 93:1). Note the present tense.
Charles III is king of the United Kingdom no matter what happens there. His subjects can obey the laws of his realm or reject them; the nation can prosper or struggle; but circumstances cannot change his status. Imagine if he were omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent. How much more would this be true?
In fact, our God is “King of kings” (Revelation 19:16), ruling over all earthly rulers. As King Solomon noted, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lᴏʀᴅ; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).
However, unlike those living in the United Kingdom, you and I have a choice. We can acknowledge and serve God as our king, or we can try to be king of our own “realm.” This is why Jesus taught us to pray daily, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). God’s kingdom comes wherever and whenever his will is done.
For example, when a wedding feast in Cana ran out of wine and Mary asked Jesus for help, she then said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). They obeyed him, filling six stone jars with water at his command, as nonsensical as this seemed at the time. And you know the rest of the story.
Because God honors the free will with which we are made in his image, he will not impose his kingdom on us—yet.
He gives us the opportunity every day to choose him as our king and Lord. But one day, the time for choosing will be over. One day “every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11).
Let’s make that day this day, for two reasons.
One: You and I need what only our King can do in our lives.
To employ Victor Glover’s analogy, we are all “on top of rockets,” heading into a dangerous future we cannot survive on our own. This is why it is imperative that we make Christ our king each day and thus become “kingdom Christians.” God always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him.
Two: Our culture needs what kingdom Christians can do in our world.
St. Augustine advised us, “Love God and do what you will.” His logic is that when we love God, we do what he wants us to do and his will becomes our will. Success is therefore accomplishing what we want to do in serving him as our king. And we become changed people who change the world.
C. S. Lewis is an example. His books have meant more to me than any except the Bible. Millions have been drawn to Christ through him. In the last week of his earthly life, the great apologist told his brother one evening, “I have done all I wanted to do, and I’m ready to go.”
According to Jonathan Edwards, the greatest theologian America has ever produced,
“The seeking of the kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian life.”
What is your “chief business” today?
“The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God.” —Leo Tolstoy
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