E-Letters

Lockheed Constellation

By Jeff Andrechyn
Nov 24, 2009

Having lived now for a half century I have seen some great eras vanish into distant memories. One era that resurrects fond memories was flying in propeller driven airliners around the world with my dad. Once we were flying over the Atlantic at night in a Lockheed Super Constellation. Hanging on the wings were four powerful Wright radial engines housing 18 pistons each, turning huge Hamilton Standard propellers biting the air and pulling our metal fuselage along at an impressive 300 mph. The Super G was peerless in the age of propeller driven airliners.

Our night over water was a cargo flight for Slick Airways. I sat in the cockpit with my dad who was flying Captain and three other crew members, the copilot, flight engineer, and a navigator. At eleven years old it was my invitation into the masculine journey as I watched these men work that graceful but complex machine. The navigator showed me how to "shoot the stars" and I watched him assiduously chart our progress over the black. I was amazed that you could fix your position on stars and if you knew how to read them, they could guide you home.

Thomas Cahill writes about the constellations and their breathtaking eternal order and predictability in his book The Gifts of the Jews. He looks at why the ancient civilization of Sumer on the Euphrates river looked to the night sky as an eternal contrast to mortal life on earth. Sumerians understood the cycles of life; birth, copulation, and death. They then looked to the circle in the night sky, the moon, and saw its 30 day cycle and they contrasted that to a women's 30 day cycle. The women would eventually die, but the moon would last forever and is therefor eternal.

On the heights overlooking Sumer they built an acropolis which housed the Temple of the Moon. This city, which they called Ur, became the imperial capital of Sumer and is where Abraham was called from. They built the city at the highest elevation because it was closer to the constellations.

When God called Abraham on an expedition into the wilderness he came out of an advanced civilization of culture and predictability. Cahill describes his journey as:

"Out of Mesopotamia, home of canny, self serving merchants who use their gods to ensure prosperity and favor, comes a party traveling by no known compass. Out of the human race, which knows in its bones that its striving must end in death, comes a leader who says he has been given an impossible promise. Out of mortal imagination comes a dream of something new, better, and yet to happen."

When God had Abraham lift his eyes to the stars, God was speaking right into Abraham's limitations of the eternal. This voice that called him is beyond the constellations. This voice showed Abraham that he was not subject to the stars but rather they were a heavenly reference to him and the heirs of promise. "So shall your offspring be." (Gen 15:5)

Abraham's journey was anything but predictable. It was full of risk, tragedy, and great reward as he moved beyond the fixed constellations and began to navigate by a new compass.

Paul tells us in Colossians to set our hearts and minds on things above, not on earth. This earth does not define us with its basic principles, and traditions. This new Life orbits well beyond our Temples of Reason and their hollow philosophies. We are asked to look beyond these static limitations to a living breathing reality that has come out of the heavens to walk amongst us.

In Philippians 2:15, Paul admonishes us to "live without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life (Jesus)."

I have lived long enough to see men pass through some perilous trials that seem impossible and come out the other side bearing a stronger reflection of God. Their lives and stories offer a bright navigational fix for people who are walking in darkness. When they speak, their words awaken and reorient many to home, to the Father.

If you are facing the impossible on your journey, we would like to say to you, "We know! Welcome aboard." We invite you to the navigator's station to look up, see the stars, and behold the promise, and to call on the One who is beyond the constellations.

Jeff