Came across this remarkable pair of photographs today over at the BoingBoing blog. A father and son who had been present at the very first space shuttle launch back in April of 1981 made sure they were together for the final one last week.

There is something quite extraordinary about the juxtaposition of these two images. They obviously posed to recreate the original picture. But as I studied it, I felt a wave of melancholy wash over me.

It wasn’t just passing of the space shuttle era with America in serious decline as a world power.

There was something about looking at what the blur of the last 30 years had done to that father . . . something about the fact that 1981 doesn’t feel like all that long ago. Perhaps the fact that my own father recently passed away . . .

Whatever the factors, I found the pictures sad and sweet. Then I thanked God for fathers. And for the reminder of the biblical truth that this life is but vapor.