Footsteps, big and small... (1)

"The height of inconsistency," says Ecclesiastes, "the height of inconsistency, all is smoke!" Ecclesiastes 1. 2

July 21, 1969. Astronaut Neil Armstrong is the first landlady to set foot on the moon. He is followed shortly by teammate Edwin Buzz Aldrin. Media around the world are relaying images of what is now called a "moon landing". Armstrong's phrase "A small step for a man... A giant step for humanity" is broadcast all over the planet. Fifty years later, she is still very widely known.

Certainly, these small steps of the astronauts concretized the giant step that had made the science and the technique to allow this short extraterrestrial visit. But has not the ideal world to which humanity has aspired for centuries come closer ? Half a century later, have the world events experienced since this feat witnessed a giant step in the general condition of humanity ?

At the dawn of time, the first man also made a gesture that is generally considered a small step ! God had placed him in a beautiful garden where everything had been prepared for him. He could freely taste all the things that were offered to him, but he had to respect the command of his creator : "But you will not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because the day you do Eat, you will die, it is certain" (Gen. 2.16). By vanity the man has eaten it !

A fruit eaten, was it a big step ? But, eaten in disregard of the divine will, it was a giant step for humanity from Adam and Eve ! No further step on the earth will equal it in its consequences ! With this step, it is the entire human race that loses its innocence and breaks the privileged relationship it had with God. "Therefore, just as by one man sin entered the world, and by sin death, so death has reached all men because all have sinned" (Rom.5:12). The domination of evil and the inability to deliver it are engraved in human nature and transmitted from generation to generation ! What a step !

Another man will come "to direct our steps on the path of peace" (Luke 1. 79). He will say : "I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). Let's walk to his light !

See you tomorrow

Source (Pleasing the Lord)