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From Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze, Anglican Priest and Prison Chaplain:

One of the things I’ve learned via a certain social media platform is that the International Space Station is a regular sight in the skies above the UK. The ISS should be visible again in this country next week, which seems particularly apt as we’re getting close to Christmas – we’ll be able to glimpse the craft as she sails across the night sky, the sun below the horizon making her glint and twinkle, while wise men (and women) interpret the messages sent from this star of wonder – albeit via astronauts and computers.

The ISS is also part of wider plans for humans to travel to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Today’s an important day for that project, as in about 3 hours time the Orion spacecraft will blast off on its first test flight into space. This is the module that one day may well take humans across millions of miles and several months of travel to land on the mysterious red planet. Orion is expected to soar 3600 miles into space, and reach a maximum speed of 20,000 mph, before returning to earth and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean later today.

For me this is such an echo of the story of the wise men at Christmas. Both the ‘boffins of Orion’ and the ‘kings of Orient’ are examples of clever people being intrigued by something new, reaching out beyond their own previous assumptions, and striking off into the unknown at some risk to themselves, with the intention of discovering something wonderful for humanity. Mars may teach us how far humans can go – my belief is that Christmas teaches us how far God will come.

But while the scientists are preparing their equations, and we’re preparing the turkey, I’d like to suggest that science and spirituality don’t have to be a million miles apart – of course they can both be distorted, but when both are at their best they’re about  adventure, improving lives, and deepening our understanding of the world, of each other, and life itself.