Sabbath Thought – The Little Engine That Could

When I was a little boy, one of my favorite stories was The Little Engine That Could. For those not familiar with this story, it was about Little Blue Engine – a small railroad train engine. A load of toys needed to be delivered to good boys and girls, but Shiny New Engine and the Big Strong Engine declined to pull the load of train cars over a seemingly impassable mountain – saying “I cannot, I cannot.” Not wanting to disappoint all of those little boys and girls, the Little Blue Train decided to do what others would not, saying “I think I can, I think I can.”

I am reminded of this story because Voyager 1 is once again in the news.  Voyager 1 was launched September 5, 1977 as one in a series of deep space probes sent to study the outer solar system with fly-bys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn’s moon Titan, and then to continue on into interstellar space (specifically to study the regions and boundaries of the heliosphere [the edge of the gravitational effect of our sun]) – sending back data along the way. In the past few months Voyager 1 has become the first man-made object to leave our solar system at the distance of one light-day (the distance of traveling at the speed of light for one day) away from Earth. As of March 2026, Voyager 1 is estimated to be more than 172 Astrological Units from earth (the distance from the Sun to the Earth) – a distance of about 25,800,000,000,000 kilometers. At that distance, the radio signals with data that Voyager 1 send back takes 23.5 hours to reach Earth.

Voyager 1 was planned to have an operating life of just five years (until 1982 or so), but with strategic reprogramming and repurposing of the onboard systems, NASA now projects that Voyager 1 will remain viable until 2036. By then it will likely be so distant from Earth that its backup data recorder will not be able to send information back to Earth, it will lose it gyroscopic operations (no longer able to orient itself) and will shut down its scientific instruments. The Voyager 1 story has captured my imagination of what can be possible for Christians who have a vision of persevering.

How about you and me? Are we like the Little Blue Engine and Voyager 1 moving forward, not listening to the critics but carrying out the task we have been given? As daunting as our calling can seem to be at times, we have help. Whatever trial, circumstance or situation God allows in our life, Christ is there to strengthen us (Philippians 4:13). God has given us the precious gift of forgiveness, the promise of being part of His family and the gift of His Holy Spirit. Do not neglect this gift (1 Timothy 4:14).

Like Voyager 1 we don’t know what awaits us on our journey, but unlike Voyager 1 we do know what will be at the end of our journey. If we are diligent to seek first God’s Kingdom (Matthew 6:33) in our journey, then at the end of our run we can be assured of hearing from the Father, “Well done,” (Matthew 25:21).

I wish you a very meaningful Sabbath,

Dan Dowd

27 June, 2026