Behind every Astronaut

Available for 28 days

Good Morning: On this day in 1969, the Apollo 11 space craft took off from Cape Kennedy on its lunar mission - this drama of space innovation has been revisited through the movie Hidden Figures: I love the movie Hidden figures not just because the calculations warm my mathematical heart, but because it exhumes previously hidden stories of human computers doubly marginalised because of gender and race: charting new mathematical pathways in space even while having to reckon with ugliness of racial segregation back on planet Earth. Behind every astronaut who reached for the stars, were prodigious young women like Katherine Johnson mapping the universe. Despite significant personal challenges as a widow and single mum, enduring deep racial discrimination, Katherine Johnson persisted in calling out the barriers to human flourishing and demanded to be included. Katherine believed the words of Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Johnson believed God had put her where she was supposed to be: she did not allow the fear of the impossible to thwart her thoughts and plans but she pressed on to change people’s perceptions through her accomplishments: We may not have the mathematical genius of Katherine Johnson - but like her we can pray to move through each day with a clear vision of the value of what we were made to be: to identify the gaps between life as it is and life as it should be and cultivate a sense of what is right. So may the God of Justice bless you. May you embrace what is true in your life and speak with an undivided heart for what is right. Amen