Of all the topics clamoring for attention in today’s news cycle, never would I have imagined UFO’s making the cut (or, as they’re called today, UAP’s–Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon).
Extraterrestrials have always belonged to the more fringe interests of society. Area 51, and Project Blue Book, alien abductions, and sightings, might have driven harmless private speculation among us in times past (“Do I believe in little green men–sure, why not?”), but certainly not for going on the official public record.
Today for some odd reason, whether media distraction, boredom, or manipulation, something has changed, with the government and even some churches promising disclosures of different sorts.
My mother was asking me about this the other day, which felt strange. As an eleven-year-old, I had been a fan of all things extraterrestrial, but conversations with my parents had never devolved into any serious dialogue about flying saucers. They were too occupied with the reality of paying bills.
Now, many adults are talking about the possibility of space aliens, and the release of allegedly suppressed files. I’m not one of them. A recent rash of photographic and video releases have shown us objects mostly too vague to make out–the same sort of stuff pulp UFO journals contained back in my childhood days.
Maybe I’ve become cynical. Maybe the special organ eleven-year-old boys possess has dried up–the one that enables belief in Bigfoot, or the Lochness Monster, or space aliens with ray guns.
I doubt that’s the reason for my attitude, though. After all, any one of those things could at long last prove true (wouldn’t it be cool?). Rather, practical wisdom determines where I put my time, focus, hope, and wonderment.
You see, even granting the idea of advanced civilizations out in the cosmos that have visited us, there’s the issue of, “so what?” For one thing, they seem singularly elusive. Their ships are too fast to be studied. In a tech-rich environment where even the least savvy of us have powerful cameras built into every phone, no one can manage to capture a detailed image of them (and if those photos existed, they would immediately be denounced as AI mischief).
These denizens of other worlds/dimensions seem to use all their wizardry in fleeing us, standing aloof, and not being contacted. They don’t want to be detected or observed or known, except in the way of the proverbial tease.
There seems to be no chance of meaningful knowledge, or understandable communication.
When someone is this resilient to contact, this devoted to evasion, this secretive, who cares if they exist at all?
My attitude toward our potential space neighbors: “Come and go, as you please. I don’t care. If you’d like to drop in and get properly introduced, fine. Otherwise, I’m not chasing you. I don’t have the time.”
I have a God who came down to this earth and lived here for thirty-three and a half years.
John wrote of his experience with Jesus during that time:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1-3).
That’s a willingness of contact to an almost unprecedented degree.
Of course Jesus worked miracles also. He demonstrated His depth of feeling for mankind by dying on the cross, and invited probing investigation of His body when He resurrected (Luke 24:38-43; John 20:27).
His invisible presence today is explained (John 16:7, Heb. 10:13), along with the purpose of His overall work (Eph. 3:8-11), and the promise of His return.
I think I’ll give my time to that.
