May 9, 2026
There are numerous reports and recently de-classified images of aerial (and other) encounters with unknown objects, now called UAPs, unidentified aerial phenomena. Here is a photo of one taken Dec. 2025 in the western U.S. Black is hot in this infrared image. Is it a balloon? There’s not enough information to judge, only to provoke questions. I’ve never personally seen a UAP, or UFO, despite years at sea in the Navy observing the sky and the ocean. I’ve not even heard rumors. My scientific mind would love to experience or learn about such events. I look at the expanse of the universe and think, wow, that’s a lot of space for us to be the only intelligent life there is. What if there are others?
Some recoil at the thought, thinking that our religious beliefs would not accommodate such ideas, that Christianity would be imperiled. Oh, wait, didn’t Jesus say that the Father’s kingdom had many “mansions” and that he would go to prepare one for us? That means that there are others than ours. We are left with wondering what that means, but I’m not dismayed by not knowing. It doesn’t imperil my beliefs in an all-encompassing Creator who fashioned all those galaxies, stars and planets. It does call into question our suppositions about God. Maybe He is greater, and his creation bigger, than we have imagined.
Humans are not, as people once erroneously believed, the center of the cosmos or perhaps the apex of creation. Does that reduce our importance to God? We believe that God sent his son to reconcile us to himself. Sounds like He thinks pretty highly of us, doesn’t it? I don’t know of alien beings, only stories and photos of things we don’t understand. Maybe that will eventually resolve, but I personally don’t mind “sharing” God with others, whether cultures here on Earth or elsewhere. I’ll bet He is accepting of everything that He created. The question is, are we? We are only beginning to understand the minds of animals, and still have trouble with race, gender, and other differences among fellow humans. So, space folk? We’ll see.
