When Apollo 11 neared the moon in July 1969, the editors of The New York Times felt their coverage of the first step on lunar soil should go beyond headlines and photos to embrace an achievement shared by all humanity. So they asked Pulitzer Prize-winner Archibald MacLeish to write a poem. The day after Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. walked on the moon, the front page contained these words:

You were a wonder to us, unattainable, a longing past the reach of longing, a light beyond our light, our lives--perhaps a meaning to us . . . our hands have touched you in your depth of night.

That day, through the hands of others, we touched the moon.

The apostle John wrote some memorable words about an even more significant historical event--the visit of God's Son to this planet. He wrote, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life . . . we declare to you" (1 Jn. 1:1,3).

John touched Jesus. And today, so can we. As surely as John held Him in the flesh, we can grasp the Son of God through faith. We too can experience the joy of having a close relationship with the Father and the Son (vv.3-4).

In faith, in fellowship, in times of greatest need, we can say, "Our hands have touched You."  — David C. McCasland