God's Launchday Playlist

I don’t know why I get teary-eyed at launches … still … even when I downplay their significance—call me when we start putting people in space again, I told a friend earlier today—I still manage to find myself moved by every launch.

And so there I was standing outside my condo this afternoon, watching the launch of the Falcon Heavy, a test launch that was only putting Elon Musk’s Tesla into space.

There were several of us out there standing in the parking lot, on the sidewalk, with our cameras and phones even though we live many miles away from the launchpad. 

But the sky was beautiful.

On a clear day, you can see forever, the song goes.

And watching that rocket launch, you could almost imagine seeing all the way to Mars.

It was when I got back into the condo and continued watching on TV that I felt such joy build up inside of me.  Thousands of people had traveled to the Space Coast for the launch and there they all were, cheering, as excited as a crowd in Time Square on New Year’s Eve.

And in the background playing was David Bowie’s Life on Mars.

I thought about the soundtrack that God had provided for my day beginning with the cardinal who sweetly sung as I walked and prayed at the labyrinth this morning, to the nearly silent whoosh of wings as the Great Blue Heron flew toward me on the road at the Wetlands, to conversations held with friends, to the cheers of the crowds watching the launch, to the delayed rumble of the engines that appeared five full minutes after the launch.

But the cheers—my goodness.

The news these days seems so bleak and everything thrown at us, designed only to prey on our fears.

But for a few minutes today, the world seemed alive and welcoming to hope.