In elementary school, were you required to memorize Joaquin Miller’s poem “Columbus”? I was.
It is an inspiring poem, chronicling the sense of hopelessness Columbus’s crew felt as they sailed further and further from home. But, according to the poet, when the sailors urged their leader to be sensible and turn back, his answer was always: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
In their book, The Light and the Glory*, Peter Marshall and David Manuel describe the ominous occasion when, aboard the Santa Maria, Columbus met with the captains of the Niña and Pinta. The three vessels were thirty-one days and more than 3,000 miles from port. The other two captains were grim. Their crews were close to mutiny. The time had come to turn back. Or else…
Columbus’s Dream
Christopher Columbus had staked his fortune and his reputation on this expedition. To turn back was unthinkable. Yet, he had another, even more compelling, reason for continuing the journey. He believed he was following a mandate from God. He believed he had a duty to live up to his name: Christopher – Christ-bearer. To carry the good news of a resurrected Savior to far-flung lands was his heart’s desire.
But Columbus wasn’t stupid. He had heard the men on his own ship joke about tossing him overboard and reporting that he had lost his balance and fallen. So, he offered a deal. They would continue three more days. Then, if they didn’t find land, they would turn back. The other two captains reluctantly agreed.
Doomsday Watch
The next morning, Columbus recorded that they had traveled 59 leagues in the last 24 hours. On only one other day had they traveled further. The nervous crews must have felt like they were flying toward their doom. Further and further from home they raced with their supplies shrinking by the day.
You may think I’m over-dramatizing, but I feel a bit of a kindred spirit with those seamen. Ever since the fraudulent 2020 elections in the United States set the stage for runaway inflation, threats against personal freedom (such as a vaccine mandate), rabid contempt for first and second amendment rights, etc. I’ve felt a little bit seasick. It seems that the current regime in Washington, D.C. has no greater desire than to shipwreck the land I love.
Seas are rough. The security of standing on dry land is fading into a distant memory. And informed voices whisper about coming food shortages.
Is there any hope? What can we do?
Homeward Bound
Well, we can do what Columbus and his men did. We can sail on. Sail on and on.
The day Columbus met with the other two captains was November 9. Two days later, signs of land began to appear: a reed, a piece of wood that had been shaped by a person, a twig with roses on it. And late that night, a tiny light was spotted. On the third day, November 12, at 2:00 A.M., the cry finally rang out, “Tierra! Tierra!”
Land at last!
Do Americans have any hope of sighting “land?” Is there any hope that the United States can remain the land of the free? Have we experienced the last honest elections this country will ever hold?
I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. We have the same dream Columbus had – to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. And we serve the same God who delivered Columbus to the island he named San Salvador (Holy Savior) on November 12, 1492.
No matter what happens to the United States and the world, we have a blessed hope. There is a sovereign God in Heaven who rules and reigns over the affairs of men. And we have a mighty Savior who loves us and has promised to prepare an eternal home for us.
When the time is right, our Lord Jesus Christ will return for us. And in the meantime, we will sail on.
*The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel, 1977, published by Fleming H. Revell Company, pp. 17, 30-41.