 NASA I started my morning reading an article about the astronauts manning the International Space Station. Due to some issues with a coolant valve, their daily activities and schedules had been off course recently. But the issues have been resolved and life has returned to normal, which includes some cool photography. One of the astronauts, Rick Mastracchio, recently took some pictures of Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, as the station passed over that area of our planet. I encourage you to follow Mr. Mastracchio on twitter at @AstroRM to see more pictures like the one below:  Rick Mastracchio / NASA via Twitter In the same article Mastracchio said something that struck me. He said, "When you are flying above all these different countries and all these different regions, and you see them as one big planet, it sure makes you wish that obviously folks can put aside their differences and ... just get along with each other. Something that makes me very happy is to see the Olympics. I think it's going to be exciting to get all the countries to come together, and even for that short period of time, work together." I've mentioned my word for this year is savor, and when I read that passage I could feel our astronaut savoring the view he had. I actually savored the chance to imagine it myself. But I could also sense the conflict in his heart. With the benefit of the breath-taking look upon earth very few of us will ever have outside of photos, he also had a wisdom of reality that all of us share, that sometimes pictures don't match that reality. That's when I found myself wondering, does God, with his view, also look down on the beauty of his creation and wish folks could put aside their differences? He must. In his original plan, the beauty of the earth was never supposed to upstage the beauty of our love for one another. But today, I can't imagine many people believe man has harmed the earth more than ongoing wars and violence and intolerance for individual differences have frayed any ties that bind us all together. Peace on earth seems as close as that space station. God sent a son to demonstrate his love for us and the love we should share with one another. Most days I'm afraid we think we have better ideas how to do that. I imagined, for a moment, God reading Mr. Mastracchio's dreams of a world united on his Facebook news feed, because I'm certain God has Facebook. He'd surely comment, "I know what you mean my friend. SMH (shaking my head). You can read the article about the astronauts and the space station here: Nosebleed seats: After dramatic spacewalks, astronauts savor Olympic view from orbit
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