Straight From The Hart
By Joan Rowden Hart
We celebrated Columbus Day this week. Or did we? I guess the more
appropriate term would be that most of us “observed” it by having a
typical Monday, the only difference being that our mail wasn’t
delivered and the banks were closed.
But Columbus Day should be one of the most important days in our
national life. It is the story of a man consumed with a passion for
his God and a heart for missions to bring the light of salvation to
those who had never heard it.
Wait – that’s not what you remember from school? Well, hold on, there’s more.
I’m quoting now from an obscure journal written by Christopher Columbus.
“It was the Lord who put it into my mind the fact that it would be
possible to sail from here to the Indies. There is no question but
that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted
me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.”
“For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of
intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of
what Isaiah had prophesied.”
You see, his name – Christopher – means “light bearer” and from his
very young years, he had a clear conviction that God had given him a
special mission to carry the light of Christ into the darkness of
undiscovered heathen lands and to bring the inhabitants of those lands
to the holy faith of Christianity.
His conviction was based upon two verses in Isaiah 49: Listen to me,
O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me
from the womb, from the body of my mother He named my name….I will
give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the
end of the earth.
But on October 9, 1492 Christopher Columbus was beginning to doubt the
call he had felt so convincingly for years.
On that day the captains of the Pinta and the Nina had maneuvered the
position of their vessels close enough to the Santa Maria’s deck that
the two men, the Pinzon’ brothers, could come aboard. The brothers
were convinced that if they continued one more day, they would have
mutiny on their hands.
They had been at sea almost thirty-one days straight and the mood of
the crews was ugly. They demanded that Columbus give up the venture
and return.
To Columbus, this was unthinkable. They were not just asking him to
cancel the voyage but to give up everything he had lived for – all his
dreams, all his plans.
But Columbus knew the time had come and he really had no choice.
However, he asked them for three additional days, and if they had not
sighted land by the twelfth of October, they would turn about and head
home.
It was a compromise that none of the three captains felt good about,
but it was agreed upon.
After the two Pinzon brothers had returned to their ships, Columbus
sat down at his desk to write in his journal, but his heart was heavy.
Three days!
His journal records that he spent the next 3 days in prayer, praying
as he never had before for a miracle.
On the morning of the eleventh of October, a reed was sighted and a
small piece of wood undoubtedly made by man. And then a small twig
with roses on it. The men on all three ships were deliriously happy,
as they had been promised a great monetary reward for the first
sighting of land.
As night fell, they were so excited that they continued to sail into
the darkness, and shortly before midnight, Columbus and one of the
sailors simultaneously sighted a tiny light far ahead of them.
At about 2 a.m. with less than four hours remaining before the dawn of
the third and final day, aboard the Pinta the cry rang out “Tierra,
Tierra!”
The men could see in the moonlight a low white cliff, and they fired a
cannon as a signal.
Peter Marshall, son of the famous Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, also
named Peter, describes what happened next.
“They reached the southern tip of the island just as the sun rose
above the blue horizon…a new day was dawning, a new era for mankind.
The fears and aches of weeks at sea seemed like nothing at all now.
In every heart was dawning an awareness of the enormity of what they
had accomplished. At the time of the first sighting there had been
laughing and dancing but now they were silent as every eye followed
the coastline slowly unfolding before them.”
Columbus put on the scarlet doublet he had brought along for the
occasion and the officers put on their best attire. The landing party
rowed ashore and for the first time they called their commander the
Admiral of the Ocean Sea, a title which would remain even to this day.
Columbus and the Pinzon brothers carried a huge white banner with a
green cross and the crowned initials of King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella on it. The men kissed the beach and their eyes filled with
tears as they knelt. Columbus christened the island San Salvador
(Holy Saviour) and prayed: “O Lord, Almighty and Everlasting God, by
Thy Holy Word Thou hast created the heaven, and the earth and the sea;
blessed and glorified be Thy Name, and praised Be Thy Majesty, which
hath deigned to use us, Thy humble servants, that Thy Holy Name may be
proclaimed in this second part of the earth.”
Do you feel like celebrating the real Columbus Day this Friday? Do
you think it deserves a day of recognition on its own, the 12th of
October, not just another Monday so we all could have a three-day
weekend without any clue as to what the day means? I do.
By Joan Rowden Hart
We celebrated Columbus Day this week. Or did we? I guess the more
appropriate term would be that most of us “observed” it by having a
typical Monday, the only difference being that our mail wasn’t
delivered and the banks were closed.
But Columbus Day should be one of the most important days in our
national life. It is the story of a man consumed with a passion for
his God and a heart for missions to bring the light of salvation to
those who had never heard it.
Wait – that’s not what you remember from school? Well, hold on, there’s more.
I’m quoting now from an obscure journal written by Christopher Columbus.
“It was the Lord who put it into my mind the fact that it would be
possible to sail from here to the Indies. There is no question but
that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted
me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.”
“For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of
intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of
what Isaiah had prophesied.”
You see, his name – Christopher – means “light bearer” and from his
very young years, he had a clear conviction that God had given him a
special mission to carry the light of Christ into the darkness of
undiscovered heathen lands and to bring the inhabitants of those lands
to the holy faith of Christianity.
His conviction was based upon two verses in Isaiah 49: Listen to me,
O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me
from the womb, from the body of my mother He named my name….I will
give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the
end of the earth.
But on October 9, 1492 Christopher Columbus was beginning to doubt the
call he had felt so convincingly for years.
On that day the captains of the Pinta and the Nina had maneuvered the
position of their vessels close enough to the Santa Maria’s deck that
the two men, the Pinzon’ brothers, could come aboard. The brothers
were convinced that if they continued one more day, they would have
mutiny on their hands.
They had been at sea almost thirty-one days straight and the mood of
the crews was ugly. They demanded that Columbus give up the venture
and return.
To Columbus, this was unthinkable. They were not just asking him to
cancel the voyage but to give up everything he had lived for – all his
dreams, all his plans.
But Columbus knew the time had come and he really had no choice.
However, he asked them for three additional days, and if they had not
sighted land by the twelfth of October, they would turn about and head
home.
It was a compromise that none of the three captains felt good about,
but it was agreed upon.
After the two Pinzon brothers had returned to their ships, Columbus
sat down at his desk to write in his journal, but his heart was heavy.
Three days!
His journal records that he spent the next 3 days in prayer, praying
as he never had before for a miracle.
On the morning of the eleventh of October, a reed was sighted and a
small piece of wood undoubtedly made by man. And then a small twig
with roses on it. The men on all three ships were deliriously happy,
as they had been promised a great monetary reward for the first
sighting of land.
As night fell, they were so excited that they continued to sail into
the darkness, and shortly before midnight, Columbus and one of the
sailors simultaneously sighted a tiny light far ahead of them.
At about 2 a.m. with less than four hours remaining before the dawn of
the third and final day, aboard the Pinta the cry rang out “Tierra,
Tierra!”
The men could see in the moonlight a low white cliff, and they fired a
cannon as a signal.
Peter Marshall, son of the famous Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, also
named Peter, describes what happened next.
“They reached the southern tip of the island just as the sun rose
above the blue horizon…a new day was dawning, a new era for mankind.
The fears and aches of weeks at sea seemed like nothing at all now.
In every heart was dawning an awareness of the enormity of what they
had accomplished. At the time of the first sighting there had been
laughing and dancing but now they were silent as every eye followed
the coastline slowly unfolding before them.”
Columbus put on the scarlet doublet he had brought along for the
occasion and the officers put on their best attire. The landing party
rowed ashore and for the first time they called their commander the
Admiral of the Ocean Sea, a title which would remain even to this day.
Columbus and the Pinzon brothers carried a huge white banner with a
green cross and the crowned initials of King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella on it. The men kissed the beach and their eyes filled with
tears as they knelt. Columbus christened the island San Salvador
(Holy Saviour) and prayed: “O Lord, Almighty and Everlasting God, by
Thy Holy Word Thou hast created the heaven, and the earth and the sea;
blessed and glorified be Thy Name, and praised Be Thy Majesty, which
hath deigned to use us, Thy humble servants, that Thy Holy Name may be
proclaimed in this second part of the earth.”
Do you feel like celebrating the real Columbus Day this Friday? Do
you think it deserves a day of recognition on its own, the 12th of
October, not just another Monday so we all could have a three-day
weekend without any clue as to what the day means? I do.
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