Reaching Toward Pluto

“Nothing will be impossible for you.” -Matthew 17:20 NIV

Dear Reader, have you been following the journey of the New Horizons space probe to Pluto? This may seem like an unlikely subject for my blog, but I am fascinated by the beautiful metaphor on faith and trust that has unfolded in this particular NASA mission.

Before launching in 2006 under the guiding principle of “shedding light on frontier worlds,” New Horizons faced considerable setbacks and opposition. When viewing the images being sent to us here on Earth from the remarkable nine and a half year, thirty billion mile journey to Pluto, it is important to note that the New Horizons project was once cancelled. After being launched, aimed towards a goal, Pluto, New Horizons’ main focus was discounted and demoted to a dwarf planet. Every new object discovered along New Horizons’ path needed to be overcome as a threat to the probe. And, according to an article in the July 15, 2015 USA Today, “it would take only a speck of dust the size of a grain of rice to mortally wound the spacecraft.”

Hidden among the New Horizons project is a beautiful metaphor for our own lives. Despite all the setbacks, obstacles and perceived failures New Horizons reached its’ goal. The team behind the project spent years engineering and calculating, and yet ultimately had to let go, and send out this valuable space probe into the unknown, trusting for nine and a half years and thirty billion miles that a speck of dust would not be the end of the mission. That is the essence of faith. That is the definition of surrendering to the unknown. New Horizons is pioneering into once uncharted territory, revealing a mystery in the far reaches of the unknown.

I look at my life now, as I venture into my own unknown. It is perhaps the most difficult and beautiful time in my life thus far. But, I can have faith too that even in the vastness of the unknown, something wonderful will be discovered. I hope the same for you.