GOD’S UNIVERSE

“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings”

So begins the poem “High Flight,” written in 1941 by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr. of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Over the years the poem has become a mantra to all pilots.

I spent 27 years as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. During those years I was privileged to fly many different aircraft, both in peace and war. Each aircraft had its own special qualities, and I loved them all. But my favorite was the SR-71, nicknamed the “Blackbird” because of its stealthy black color. This aircraft flew at altitudes above 80,000 feet and over three times the speed of sound (or about 35 miles per minute).

To survive in that environment, the Blackbird’s two crew members had to wear pressure suits exactly like astronauts wear on space flights. When in a pressure suit, you were in your own life-sustaining environment, or cocoon. Because of the pressure suit, I could not hear or smell the plane. The pilot’s cockpit in the SR-71 was so far forward that I could not see any of the plane except for the sharply pointed nose. Flying the SR-71 was like riding on the end of a telephone pole at more than 2,100 miles per hour at 15 miles above the earth!

Throughout one’s life there are a few “Wow” moments, times that are so special and make such an impression that you never forget them. Times like seeing your baby for the first time or seeing your son holding his baby for the first time. One such “Wow” moment came for me in 1978, on a dark night while flying a SR-71 over the North Pole in a mission to make a high-speed, high-altitude reconnaissance pass by the Soviet submarine pens at Murmansk.

Flying at night at that altitude was always awe-inspiring. Once you get above most of the earth’s atmosphere, the sky lights up and becomes one huge Milky Way. Silently observing all the stars, I could not help but be moved by God’s incredible creation. How special we are to have been created in the image of such a loving God. I also could not help but think and be thankful for the fact that, even with the entire universe to watch over, God stills considers me special.

When I was thanking God for his love, the stars, and all that he has provided, an incredible thing happened. My cockpit filled with the light of a huge full moon that was quickly rising over my right shoulder. During the next 20 minutes, that full moon rose and set three complete times over my aircraft. Some would say that was because we were flying so far north, but all I could do was think of the final verse of the poem “High Flight”:

“And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God.”

— Joe Kinego

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist