What is the Distance from the Earth to the Moon?
What is the distance from the earth to the moon?
I’ve asked a couple people, and they couldn’t tell me the answer. My fiancé said, “I couldn’t even begin to estimate.” “But you’ve looked it up before, or someone’s told you the answer?” I asked him. “Well, yes, but I don’t remember.” I bet if it was part of his daily routine to look up or recall the distance from the earth to the moon, he would remember.
By the way, on average, it’s about 239,000 miles away.
Contrastingly, if someone asked me, “What is the chief end of man?” I would respond immediately, “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”[i] Anytime someone says, “This is God’s Word,” I at least think, if not blurting it right out loud, “Thanks be to God.”
I can even remember most of the first question of the Heidelberg catechism:
“What is your only comfort in life and death?”
“That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”[ii]
I haven’t heard these things one or two times, or Googled the answers when I thought of the questions; I’ve heard them repeated many many times.
The church is full of repetitions like this, hopefully the most important things being repeated the most often. We recite prayers and creeds, repeat the same responses, read verses over and over until they’re memorized, and repeat catechism questions with our children until their little voices can articulate that there is one true God who made the world.
I’ve been told by teachers that if they repeat something, it’s likely important. This is also true of the Bible. What God says again and again is what we need to hear again and again. God is the best teacher, after all.
“How far is the earth from the moon?”
“239,000 miles.”
“What is your only comfort in life and death?”
That I am not my own, but Christ’s.
There are a few methods of memorizing by repetition, one being catechization. The act of catechizing is a teaching method that dates back to biblical times. Simply, it is orally recited questions and answers that are memorized. It can be compared to memorizing multiplication tables or English and grammar rules. When these things are committed to memory, the student is prepared to use those rules and become knowledgeable in a subject. The well-memorized student is often a good student. They have committed to memory the necessary tools for academic success.
It is similar for a student of the Bible. The more equipped a student is to recall and articulate biblical truth, the more prepared they will be to repeat truth to themselves in times of darkness, and the more equipped they will be as an evangelist and apologist.
And the Bible with these truths in it is accessible to all of us. We can repeat the same verses until they are stuck on our foreheads and recite the same truths until they ring in our ears, because we are too quick to forget even those things that have never changed in all eternity.
Even some of the verses I have repeated 50 times I cannot remember accurately, so I will go read them a 51st time, and then a 52nd.
“What is the distance from the earth to the moon?”
“239,000 miles.”
“What is your only comfort in life and death?”
That I am not my own, but Christ’s.
Part of the help of a catechism as well is the simplicity of it. If I simply asked, “What is the purpose of man?” and you had not a catechism answer to help you, it might become a slightly complicated question. You might include something about working, glorifying God in work and enjoyment of his creation, fulfilling the path he has set before you, telling others about the gospel, to live and die according to his will. But “To glorify God and enjoy him forever” just about sums it all up. We aim to glorify God with our lives, including our enjoyment of the blessings he has given us. Then, we aim to glorify him in our deaths, having been faithful servants to the end, and be taken on to eternal enjoyment of him. What a beautiful purpose we’ve been given!
Many of the doctrines of God are even simple enough for a child’s catechism.
“Who made you?”
“God.”
“What else did God make?”
“God made all things.”
“Why did God make you and all things?”
“For his own glory.”
“How can you glorify God?”
“By loving him and doing what he commands.”
“Why ought you to glorify God?”
“Because he made me and takes care of me.”[iii]
This is so beautiful and simple that it need not be reserved for children, but to remind adults of the simple faith they hold fast.
Learning these doctrines should not stop at the catechism answers, of course, but simple memorized answers serve as a cue or a pathway to the greater truth of God’s Word.
“What is the distance from the earth to the moon?”
“239,000 miles.”
“What is your only comfort in life and death?”
That I am not my own, but Christ’s.
By these answers, we enter into truth. It is a sort of liturgy in the everyday, where we recall who our God is and who we are. In times of doubt, what we are sure of as true can combat our fears. In times of hurt, the comfort of God’s unchanging nature brings us peace. In our hopelessness, when we finally approach the question, “What’s it all worth? Why am I here?” it answers itself with the truth that we know. We are not our own. God loves us. He is in control.
So, to prove a point: What is the distance from the earth to the moon?
And, far more importantly: What is your only comfort in life and death?
[i] The Westminster Shorter Catechism