Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

The sun shall no longer be    your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night;

but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

Isaiah 60:1

As 1968, one of the most turbulent, tragic years in American history, drew to a close, millions around the world were watching the Apollo 8 astronauts become the first humans to orbit another world. On Christmas Day, from the backside of the moon, they beamed back images, including the iconic “Earthrise” shot and took turns reading from the first chapter of Genesis. They closed with a simple Christmas wish for everyone “on the good earth.”

My mother remembers stopping still before the television that Christmas morn to take it in. “Awe-striking is not a strong enough word. The scene demanded our silence for something beyond our world and earthly comprehension was speaking directly to us.” Later that day, one broadcaster declared that the astronauts’ message had just saved 1968.

I wonder…what could possibly save 2025, a similarly turbulent and tragic year?

Perhaps something beyond our world and comprehension that longs to speak to us directly. Something that gives a broader perspective and, like the photo reminds us that earthly borders and nationalistic boundaries are mute Thankfully, the same Spirit that crafted this galaxy and all the others confined herself to the flesh and bones of a human infant. Christ, Word incarnate, came down so that the whole earth could rise…rise above the borders, divisions, and nationalistic boundaries we hold tight to that can’t even be seen from the broader view of the astronauts.

Isaiah declares that the glory of the Lord has risen upon us. The Light of the world has come to us to be our everlasting light at all times, especially in the uncertain, turbulent, and even tragic ones. That Christmas morn in 1968, the astronauts glimpsed for a moment the magnitude of the Divine – the majestic love of a global God coming directly to our own parcels of struggle and revealing more than we can imagine possible.

Each Christmas we, too, can catch a similar glimpse, not out beyond the backside of the moon but rather simply by peering into a manger in Bethlehem or any place that humbly welcomes the ones the world reject.

Truth be told, we can daily see the Earthrise (aka the beauty and power of God’s good and redeemed creation) in people like you, siblings across the globe, seeking to see the goodness and possibility in one another no matter our earthly differences and together, working to bring compassion, truth, justice and real liberation to your own communities.  It is awe-striking, when we watch for it, to see the divine rise up in others through acts of mercy, justice, beauty, and love.

This holiday season and every day of 2026, may we pause and with awe take in the view from the backside of the moon. May we see the possibilities of the divine and not the limits of earth. May we watch and welcome the everlasting light and reflect it to others, even and especially in times like these.

Rev Alisa Lasater-Wailoo

First United Methodist Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  Christman, Faith