PERSEVERANCE ON MARS
On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover landed on Mars and began its mission of looking for signs that life may’ve existed at some point in the red planet’s distant past. After five years of driving across twenty-five miles of dirt and rock, the plucky science vehicle has been determined by mission specialists to be in excellent shape. They have cleared “Percy” for at least another five years and thirty-seven miles. “The rover is in excellent shape,” says Steve Lee, the Perseverance deputy project manager from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Its systems are fully capable of supporting a very long-term mission to extensively explore more fascinating regions of Mars.”
PERSEVERANCE IN LIFE
Today’s reading includes four New Testament passages concerning Simon Peter. Near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, He invites two fishermen, brothers Andrew and Peter, to be His disciples. When Jesus later tests these disciples, asking who He is, it is Peter who declares that Jesus is the Messiah. After Jesus’ resurrection, He comes to Peter, “the Rock,” to challenge him. When Peter claims to love Jesus, the Lord tells him to respond by feeding His sheep. Nearer to the end of Peter’s life, he can write with personal conviction about the patience that God shows each person.
Questions
- What’s the most resilient machine you know of?
- How was Peter able to recover from his serious failures as a disciple of Jesus?
- Where is an area of your life where God is teaching you perseverance?