I’m sure many of you children have heard about the ship called the Titanic. The Titanic was a huge ship built over 100 years ago. It was a very comfortable and fancy ship built to carry people across the ocean. This wonderful ship had a swimming pool and a gym, special restaurants and every possible luxury to make a long ocean voyage very enjoyable.
The Titanic was built in England and its first voyage was to be to the United States. It began its first journey on April 10, 1912. A ticket for the Titanic was so expensive that mostly only very rich people could afford to pay the price, and when it left England, it had some of the richest people in the world on board.
Captain Edward Smith was the captain of the Titanic. Children, I hardly want to tell you this, but this man said something very sad and very wrong. He said, “Even God Himself couldn’t sink this ship!” What foolish words! Yes, this ship was built to be very strong, and it had very smart men to design and engineer it. Everything had been thought of to make this the very best passenger ship ever made. But, of course, nothing is stronger than God. However, with such confident people talking about how safe it was, tickets were purchased and many people sailing on that ship thought that it was “unsinkable.” They felt no fear. No need, they thought, to be afraid to sail on this wonderful, beautiful and safe ship. They thought they would not only have a wonderful time on this ship, but also that they could trust the ship to bring them safely to New York City about a week later.
Well, just four days after sailing away from England, the ship hit an iceberg. An iceberg is a gigantic piece of ice floating in the ocean. Icebergs can be hard to see and avoid since much of them is hidden under the water. This accident happened after it was already dark, when it would be even harder to see. Shortly before the Titanic struck the iceberg, the radio operator, Jack Phillips, had actually gotten warnings from other ships letting them know there were icebergs in their path. But Jack was busy letting the passengers know they had gotten messages from loved ones, and so, sadly, he ignored the warnings so he could continue what he was doing!
It was 11:40 p.m. when the ship hit the iceberg. It didn’t take long for the ship to start filling with water and then it began to sink. It was very frightening! Many women and children were put into lifeboats along with a few men, but only 705 of the people on the ship were able to be saved on the lifeboats. Because the ship was thought to be so safe, there weren’t even enough lifeboats for everyone on board.
The Titanic sent out calls to other ships nearby to come help them. One ship called the Carpathia was several miles away. It was not the closest ship to the sinking Titanic, but the captain decided to turn his ship around and go help. Sadly, the Titanic had already sunk with many people still on board by the time help arrived.
The Carpathia’s captain knew it was a risky job to guide his ship through the same patch of icebergs that the Titanic had been entering. He was known to have been praying during this scary adventure. He later said, “I can only conclude another hand than mine was on the helm.” Isn’t that nice? God was his helper. He guided this man and allowed him to avoid the icebergs that could have made his ship sink as well. The ship got to the spot where the Titanic had gone down about 1½ hours after it sank, but the crew got to work to rescue all the people who were in the lifeboats.
Children, the story of this rescue reminds me of an even more amazing rescue. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, came from heaven so that He could save you and me, not from a watery grave, but from eternal death. It wasn’t easy for Him to leave the Father’s house and come to die on the cross so we could be saved from our sins, and yet He did it. He died so that He could give us eternal life! Isn’t that wonderful love? If you don’t know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, today is the day to come to Him in faith and be saved. Have you trusted Him to save you from your sins?
I believe there is another lesson for us to learn from this story. Children, we all need to have something called “the fear of God” in our hearts. This is not a fear that you might have about some things that seem scary. This fear is having a lot of respect for someone more powerful than yourself. It is also being afraid to hurt someone we love very much because they are so good. We should always have this respect for God! The captain of the Titanic didn’t have this fear of God, and he found out in a very sad way that God is more powerful than he thought God was. I hope you are wiser than that!
Messages of God’s Love 1/24/2021