The Hubble Fix

When NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990, it was supposed to be humanity's clearest window into the heavens. Instead, the first images came back blurry. Engineers discovered that the primary mirror — ground with extraordinary precision — had been shaped to the wrong specifications. A flaw of just 2.2 microns, roughly one-fiftieth the width of a human hair, rendered the entire $1.5 billion telescope nearly useless. Headlines called it a national embarrassment.

But NASA did not abandon Hubble. In December 1993, astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour carried out one of the most ambitious repair missions in history. Over five spacewalks, they installed COSTAR — a set of corrective lenses designed to compensate for the flawed mirror. They did not replace the broken part. They worked with it, adding something new that transformed the defect into clarity.

The moment those corrective optics locked into place, Hubble began sending back images of breathtaking precision — galaxies, nebulae, the deep reaches of creation itself.

This is what the God of restoration does. He does not scrap us when we come back flawed. He does not discard what He launched with purpose. Instead, He draws close — closer than an astronaut's gloved hands on a telescope panel — and adds His grace to our brokenness. The flaw remains part of our story, but it no longer defines what we can see or who we can become.

You were made to reveal glory. And the One who made you is not finished working.