Oct. 30, 2009 — Closer to God

The German physicist Wernher von Braun could well have been remembered only as the inventor of some of history's most destructive weapons.

His V-2 rocket took many lives during World War II, but it was developed too late to keep Germany from losing. Von Braun and his crew were captured by the Americans.

After that, von Braun developed rocketry for peaceful space exploration. So in 1959, his operations were transferred from the Army to NASA. He would go on to design the rockets that took 12 Americans to the moon.

Which is to say that our God-given talents are neutral, and we can use them for bomb making or to send people to the moon.

Just a thought. I'm Sid Batts from First Presbyterian Church in downtown Greensboro, fpcgreensboro.org.