Many are prepared but only one was called. That is how I would sum up Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s life.
This reminds me of the Bible verse, Matthew 22:14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” What an honor.
The New York Times described him as a “ … quiet, private man, at heart an engineer and crack test pilot …”
I was very moved on hearing of his final journey, and I don’t know why. I was 11 years old when I watched him walk on the moon, on black & white TV, in a small town in what was then considered the backwaters of Peninsula Malaysia.
Malaysia had just gone through the trauma of race riots of May 13th between the native born peoples of Chinese and Malay descent.
And here was America on the other side of the world, the other side of race relations, and the other side of the technological spectrum. They had put together a small band of engineers, called NASA, on a promise and a prayer that these engineers would do good with our tax payers’ money. Neil Armstrong was one of them.
They did.
When he set foot on lunar soil he did not say “… that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for America … ” instead he said “ … that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind …”
The Lord be with you, Neil.
