Oh look, Chicken Thursday!

Even with one of my granddaughters sitting beside me, I have to admit that watching the Artemis II rocket lift off yesterday made me feel like a little boy again.

I know the technology inside this latest generation of rockets is vastly different from the ones they launched when I was a young boy — back in the late '60s and '70s — but it didn't matter. There is just something about a big old rocket firing up and heading for the Moon that does a heart good.

Hats off to those four astronauts for the confidence and bravery it takes to strap themselves into a capsule perched on top of all that explosive power. I'm excited to watch how things unfold over the next ten days, and I'm fully expecting a few more moments of boyish wonder as they travel out to and back from the Moon.

As a fun little bonus: NASA offered people the chance to submit their names to be included on a memory disk aboard the rocket. I took them up on that. So while those four brave souls become the farthest humans from Earth in history, my name will be along for the ride — one among 5,647,889 others. More boyish fun, indeed!

Enjoy the rest of today's Digest. 

~ Pastor Tim