Wednesday 10 March, 2021

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Perseverance is a word that has been thrown around a lot in the news in the past week. NASA finally landed a Rover, named Perseverance on Mars after travelling nearly eight months from Earth. Perseverance travelled 174 million kilometres to reach its destination and its mission total cost is about US$3 billion dollars. 

The aim of Perseverance is to study the geology of Mars and further understand the universe.  Without even being connected to this mission in any way, I am in awe of what has been completed thus far. At a very basic level what humans can achieve is unfathomable. Our greatest achievements in science, particularly astrophysics, have always been surrounded by such a platform of humans working tirelessly to create a project goal that is often at great risk, calculation and expense. 

A verse of this passage stood out to me “because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 

In my own interpretation, I am sure that the team that worked on the Rover would have suffered or been challenged in some way.  I am sure there would have been many hurdles along the way to getting this project happening. But what is the result- in this case- success- the Rover has landed. Eight months of the unknowing. Tears and cheers were flowing from the team in the media of this triumph.

Dear God, thank you for the opportunities that you provide for us to learn about the world around us. Thank you for science and the abilities of people to apply their knowledge and skills at great costs. Thank you for giving us the gift of perseverance to help us desire the things we want to achieve in this world. Amen

Written by Susannah Ware