Minister’s Message: A Lesson from Artemis II
Published 5:30 am Friday, April 24, 2026
How a person is perceived by others often depends upon his or her vocabulary. Our perceived vocabulary can be good, or it can be not so good. It can be spiritual or not spiritual. How we communicate to others defines us in many ways. How we communicate boils down to having the right heart. How deeply and precisely we can articulate thoughts or our faith depends in part to our vocabulary.
In Luke 6:45, Jesus said: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Last week, the world was watching the flight of Artemis II around the moon. As the astronauts were attempting to describe the unfathomable beauty of the Earth from space, they expressed how the view was too awe inspiring to put into words.
The pilot of the mission was astronaut Victor Glover. In space, Victor Glover spoke to his children from the Artemis II capsule.
He encouraged his children to take inspiration from the flight but to build and articulate their own understanding of what they were experiencing from the flight of the astronauts. He told his children: “But it’s not because we want you to see what we’ve tried to show you. It’s because we want you to take this and build a vocabulary to explain the world to us.”
The exercise given to Glover’s children was to build their own vocabulary by stretching themselves to express their perceptions of space science. Describing the awesome creations of God and their innermost emotions, feelings and lessons learned, is how the children will grow their character and expression in meaningful ways.
In the same way, we each need to stretch ourselves to grow in the vocabulary needed to express our revealed, awe-inspiring wisdom from God, His love, and our love for Him.
The apostle Paul used words effectively and beautifully. In Ephesians 1:17-19 he uses his vocabulary to describe something heavenly and something not of this earthly world.
He wrote: “.. 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might..”
I have to ask: Can you express those words of Paul in your own vocabulary? Increasing our vocabulary as we grow spiritually is important. We need to be able to describe the beauty, wisdom, and hope of our faith to others we meet along our journey of life.
Dr. Roger Holl is Executive Director of VisionAlaska, Alaska Brethren Ministries.
