Asteroid appears to be wearing a facemask: An often-overlooked path to happiness

An asteroid with the eloquent name 52768 (otherwise known as
1998 OR2) will pass our planet next week. It is 1.2 miles wide and will be traveling
19,461 miles per hour at the time. If it struck us, it is “large enough to
cause global effects,” according to NASA.

Don’t add this to your list of worries, however: the
asteroid will miss us by 3,908,791 miles.

A planetary scientist explains why 1998 OR2 is in the news: “The
small-scale topographical features such as hills and ridges on one end of
asteroid 1998 OR2 are fascinating scientifically. But since we are all thinking
about COVID-19, these features make it look like 1998 OR2 remembered to wear a
mask.”

The facemask-wearing asteroid is the largest asteroid expected to pass us within the next two months, but not the largest ever. That designation belongs to the asteroid 3122 Florence (1981 ET3), which missed us on September 1, 2017 but will pass us again on September 2, 2057. It is estimated to be between 2.5 and 5.5 miles wide.

An often-overlooked path to happiness

In these days of pandemic, end-of-the-world scenarios feel
less like science fiction and more like real possibilities. A deadly virus that
can infect people without them knowing it, who then can infect others, seems
like the plot of a bad horror movie, except we’re all in this film together.

I’ve been doing more radio interviews and teleconferences
than ever during the pandemic. A question I’m asked every time raises the age-old
problem of theodicy: how can an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God allow
such suffering?

After we discuss the various theological approaches to this
issue, I try to turn the conversation from the negative to the positive: it’s at
times like this that we especially need an all-knowing, all-loving,
all-powerful God.

Your Father’s omniscience means that he knew about the
pandemic before we did, but it also means that…