On December 24th, 1968, from a distance of over 200,000 miles from Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 decided during their Christmas Eve broadcast to do a reading from the Book of Genesis. To them, this perfectly fit the way the dark and light of the Moon contrasted with the colors of the Earth, and how fragile our small planet appeared to them from that distance.
I’m not going to provide any real commentary, nor do I intend to make any statements of any kind beyond the symbolism the Apollo 8 crew intended with their original reading 45 years ago. Instead, I will let you watch and listen to the broadcast yourself, and take what you can from it.
For those of you who celebrate it, Merry Christmas planet Earth.