One of the good guys

I met a scientist who also happened to be an astronaut on the plane
the other day. This guy was really fascinating. He was a biochemist
and was conducting experiments on the space shuttle. His experiment
was to grow crystals from proteins. In essence they grow perfectly in
space because there is no gravity. Why is this important? Because if a
perfect crystal can be produced, its molecular structure can be
accurately mapped right down to each individual atom by subjecting it
to x-rays. Why is that important? Because once the atomic structure
is known exactly, drugs can easily and quickly be engineered and
developed to accomplish all kinds of things like cure diseases and
kill bad bugs and so forth.

Wow! What disease was he working toward curing? Anthrax. He has developed a drug that will kill anthrax and can even be taken in the form of a pill ahead of time to prevent it. He referred to it as an anthrax prophylactic. Then he told me that a terrorist could disperse a thimble full of anthrax using a common atomizer and in an afternoon wipe out 1/3rd of the population of Washington D.C. The people would die in less than a week. Anthrax causes death by suffocation as the “bugs” fill up your lungs and the blood and volume of bacteria in effect smother you to death. There is currently more concern over this threat by those “in the know” than over the threat of nuclear war.

I asked him if he was a Christian and he said that he believed in God
prior to going up on the shuttle and now is even more convinced. He
said the most striking thing he remembered was how fragile the thin
blue line of our earth’s atmosphere looked from outer space. He said
it made him shudder to think about how we were destroying it with
pollution. Once the thin blue line is destroyed we are gone with it.
Are we trading industry for life?

Meeting him and hearing all of this made me think about our classic
battle between good and evil. How some are Hell bent towards
destroying God’s creations and how others are fighting them “tooth and
nail”, even in outer space. Good will ultimately win the war against
evil, but there are many battles that must be fought. We cannot all be
astronauts and fight the good fight personally, but we can all be a
part of missions like this one by praying for those who risk their
lives for the greater good of the rest of us. Incidentally the odds of
another shuttle blowing up are one in twenty-six, or one in
seventy-eight, according to whether or not you believe NASA, or the
Air Force. Either way it is dangerous business. We are in debt to
brave men and women like this who risk their very lives to fight
terrorism and the dark forces.

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Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers
For they shall be called sons
of God.


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