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I love you to the moon and back is a quote from the children’s book, Guess How Much I Love You. It is meant to express that one loves another person more than they can imagine.  The story goes like this:  “I love you to the moon, said little Nutbrown Hare.  “Oh, that’s far, said Big Nutbrown Hare. “That’s very, very, far.” Big Nutbrown Hare settled Little Nutbrown Hare into his bed of leaves. He leaned over and kissed him goodnight. Then, he lay down close by and whispered with a smile, “I love you to the moon and back.”
In Discover magazine, p. 76, The 100 top science stories for 2017, number 77 was, “To the Moon and Back: An Astronaut’s Loving Tribute Finally Acknowledged.” The story, written by Eric Betz, begins with Jim Lovell’s flight in 1968 as navigator of Apollo 8–the first mission around the moon. Lovell carefully documented his path above the Sea of Tranquility, where NASA would land Apollo 11. He spotted a small, pyramid-shaped mountain near the landing site and name it Mount Marilyn for his wife.  Lovell knew he wouldn’t forget the landmark.  Mount Marilyn proved vital on Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong relied on it for navigation during a harrowing landing. The mountain is among dozens of features named by astronauts, but not on official moon maps.  For nearly half a century, astronomy’s official nomenclature group–The International Astronomical Union (IAU), wouldn’t make any of the name’s official.  Scientists used an asterisk if they cited them.  But, in July (2017), after multiple applications by Lovell and Arizona State University astronomer Mark Robinson, the IAU reversed course for three of the landmarks, including Mount Marilyn, without explanation. Lovell, who kept the campaign a secret from Marilyn, enjoyed revealing it at last.  “She was quite amazed,” Lovell says. “In exploration there’s romanticism, too.”  What a remarkable gesture of love by a husband for his wife!
In Eph. 5:25-33, the apostle Paul compares the love a husband should have for his wife to two things.  The first comparison is to the love that Christ has for the church.  “Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it” (Eph. 5:25).  The key words in this text are “even as.” Christ loved the church sacrificially, selflessly, intensely, and purposefully.  A husband’s love for his wife is challenged to imitate Christ’s love.  The second comparison is given in Eph. 5:28-29, “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.  He that loveth his wife loveth himself.  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.”  The word nourish indicates the care bestowed upon another.  The word cherish denotes to foster with tender care or cherish with tender love.  The two comparisons teach a valuable lesson about the love a husband should have for his wife.  As Christ loved the church (I love you all the way to the cross) and as a husband loves himself (I love you to the depths of my own being).  These phrases, along with the idea of loving someone to the moon and back, simply declare the intensity, depth, height, and greatness of this love.