Al Worden, the command module pilot of the 1971 Apollo 15 moon mission, has the strange honor of having been the most isolated human being in history. During his orbits of the moon, with his teammates over 2,200 miles away on the lunar surface, Worden, very much all by himself, got a perspective on the cosmos that only a handful of humans ever have had.

Worden says, I got to look at the universe out there with a very different perspective and a very different way than anyone had before. What I found was that the number of stars was just so immense. In fact, I couldn't pick up individual stars, it was like a sheet of light. I found that fascinating because it changed my ideas about how we think about the Universe. There are billions of stars out there—the Milky Way galaxy that we're in contains billions of stars, not just a few. And there are billions of galaxies out there. So what does that tell you about the Universe? That tells you we just don't think big enough. … [Y]ou want to feel insignificant? Go behind the Moon sometime. That'll make you really feel that you're nothing!

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes, we have experiences that put our own smallness into perspective, as we are faced with something utterly beyond us. For you, that experience probably won't come on the far side of the moon. But it can come right here on earth—in the presence of the God who fashioned the cosmos, and still cares personally for you.