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If The Titanic Had Not Sunk

 

 

 

If the Titanic had not sunk… I would not have my husband and children and grandchildren! 

 

Over one hundred years ago in an area of Europe, Emil married Tererjia and started a family. They were undoubtedly filled with great joy when little Joseph was born to them. Yet great sadness awaited them with the birth of another child. Tererjia died, and it is assumed the child died as well, since nothing else is ever heard about that little one.

 

At some point, Emil left young Joseph in the care of others, and sailed to America to begin a new life there. Once he was able, after about three years, he sent for nine year old Joseph to come to him. Bringing him was a woman named Mary Clara, who was to marry Emil. The two boarded the Titanic in April of 1912 and set sail across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

During the voyage, as the Titanic was sinking, Mary Clara got a sleeping Joseph out of bed and brought him up on the deck of the ship. After tossing him safely into a lifeboat, Mary Clara lost her own balance and plunged into the icy water below. She drowned in the undertow of a lifeboat.

 

Joseph remembers sitting in the lifeboat with no (street) clothes on, his fingernails frozen… aching. He said music was being played on the big ship. (In his later years Joseph, along with other Titanic survivors, would recount the events of that night in an article in a Cleveland newspaper.)

 

After being picked up by the Carpathia and brought to America, Joseph was unable to reunite with his father, as Joseph could speak no English, and didn't know where his father lived. He was sent back to the original embarking point in England. Months later a relative of Emil's named Andreas would bring Joseph to America on the ship the St. Louis, and reunite the father and son on a farm in Ohio where Emil was working.

 

Emil met and married a woman in America with whom he went on to have eight more children. The third child, George, Joseph's half-brother, would become my father-in-law in 1974.

 

God is completely and awesomely sovereign and in control of everything. 

 

Through the horrific tragedy of the Titanic's sinking, Emil ended up marrying the woman in America that he did, having the children they did, and one of them with his wife would in turn have the man I would one day marry. Our own three children, and now six little grandchildren, also came as a result of that fateful night in April, 1912.

 

Could God have brought George and his children (which included my beloved husband, and then our children, and grandchildren) into being without these tragic chain of events? Of course He could have! But He instead chose to use those events - including the sinking of the Titanic, as part of His plan to bring about something that I consider to be very good - my husband and children and grandchildren!

 

Our great God's promise to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose is absolutely true (Romans 8:28). His good and sovereign plan is woven into our lives through all things He ordains and allows... and we are exceedingly grateful for this.

 

 

 

 

© 2007-2012 John and Kim Namestnik       www.givengrace.com

 

Note: This page is copyrighted with all rights reserved. Permission to use it in any way must be obtained from us first. Our email address is on our Home Page.

 

(Original Posting 4-13-07)

 

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And He said to him,

You shall love the LORD your GOD

with all your heart,

and with all your soul,

and with all your mind.

This is the great and foremost commandment.

(Matthew 22:37-38)

 

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What Grace is Mine  

What grace is mine
That He who dwells in endless light
Called through the night to find my distant soul
And from His scars poured mercy that would plead for me
That I might live and in His name be known

 

What grace is mine

to know His breath alive in me
Beneath His wings my weary soul may soar
All fear can flee for death's dark night is overcome
My Saviour lives and reigns forevermore

 

So I will go wherever He is calling me
I lose my life to find my life in Him
I give my all to gain the hope that never dies
I bow my heart take up my cross and follow Him

 

 

(© 2009 Thankyou Music - Song by Keith & Kristyn Getty)

 

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Grace is given

not because we have done good works

but in order that

we may be able to do them.

Saint Augustine of Hippo

 

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Excellent reminder this beautiful fall day...

 

We are not long here.

Our life is but a breath.

So we better breathe it!

 

(attributed to C. S. Lewis) 

 

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Two new posts are up in the Learn to Discern section:

 

1. Verbatim or Plainly

 

2. Mental Checklist

 

 

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Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, and on

Thy wonderful works, I will meditate. (Psalm 145:3-5)

 

 

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We're writing…

 

…to bring glory to God by making Him more accurately known so that He is praised and celebrated.

 

…to remind ourselves of God's truth that we may walk in it.

 

…to encourage our children on their journey with the Lord and give them tools to help train their children.

 

…to exhort the Body of Christ by sharing ideas and resources.

 

…to entreat those who have yet to meet the wonderful Savior to be reconciled to God.

      


 

Contact us at: post-a-note at givengrace dot com 

 

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