A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Handford
We celebrated Columbus Day last week, on the date he first spied new land from his flagship, the Santa Maria. You may have heard derogatory statements made about him and the statues of him that were destroyed. I’d like to make a quiet defense of a really good man and for the Savior whom he tried to honor with courage and commitment—and Jesus was honored with his astonishing achievement. Columbus’s diaries clearly record his motivation.
“Today we sailed on,” Columbus wrote in his ship’s log, weeks after he’d embarked from Spain. A stark statement. A dogged purpose. He was sailing an uncharted path through an unknown ocean to an unmapped seashore, seeking a way to the Orient by sailing west. The eastern route was tedious and dangerous.
On board his ship that day, Columbus was fulfilling a boyhood dream. He dearly loved the Lord Jesus. He really wanted the whole world to hear about Him so they could go to Heaven. He’d read Marco Polo. People in India and China hadn’t heard about Jesus.
And another thing: his name was Christopher. He’d been named for St. Christopher, who, legend said, carried the Christ Child Jesus on his shoulders through a raging torrent. Why shouldn’t this Christopher carry the Lord Jesus across the unknown sea so the people in the East could hear the Gospel?
Then, too, he’d stood on the shipping docks of Genoa, Italy, and watched ships sail westward across the Mediterranean Sea. Even as he watched, those ships disappeared beneath the horizon, first the hull of the ship and then the masts and sails. That proved to him that the earth was round, not flat. Didn’t the Bible speak plainly about the “circle” of the earth (Isaiah 40:22)? And hadn’t Jesus told a parable where some people were working in the day, and others sleeping at night at the same time? Surely the earth was round, and you could reach the East by sailing west!
So, now at last, he was actually sailing westward to reach the East. He had only a magnetic compass and the stars to chart his course. He recorded their progress each day in the ship’s log, minimizing their distance from home so his seamen wouldn’t be too frightened. You can imagine his deep gratefulness and satisfaction when he stepped ashore of an island he named San Salvador—Holy Savior!
It was a formidable achievement. It opened up the whole world to commerce, to exotic goods, remarkable peoples, and yes, the Gospel. We Americans have respected this achievement so much that there are more statues of Columbus in the United States than any other man, except for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
So why this sudden and recent destructive movement to dishonor Columbus?
Because after Columbus got back to Spain, Queen Isabella made him administrator of the “new” lands he’d discovered. Many of the men under him defied his authority, They mistreated and abused the native American Indians terribly. The queen eventually replaced him. And that was the right thing to do. Columbus was a sailor, a dreamer, not an administrator. He was a voyager, a seer, not an office manager. And for that he deserves our honor.
What gave Columbus the courage to set out on such a risk-filled voyage? King David answers that question for him in Psalm 139:7-10 (nlt):
“I can never get away form your presence. If I go up to Heaven, You are there. If I go down to the grave You are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.”
Do you dream of a way you could serve God? Reach it, with humility, with God’s presence, His wisdom, and His help.