Sometimes God shows up in unexpected ways. In 1619, when many believers in England were considering an arduous journey to the New World in order to experience religious freedom, one man was boarding a ship for the Americas for a completely different reason - he was trying to get back home.
In 1605 a Native American by the name of Tisquantum (Squanto was the name he adopted) was captured by a British sailor and brought back to England, where he learned English. After nine years he returned to his people (the Patuxets on Cape Cod) with Captain John Smith. After only a short stay back in his homeland, Squanto was coaxed into boarding another English sailing vessel whereby he was captured and sold into the Spanish slave trade. Other Native Americans captured with Squanto never saw their homeland again, but Squanto was traded to some local friars in Spain and introduced to Christianity. After his conversion, Squanto was allowed to leave for England, where he once again found passage on a vessel bound for the New World. Upon his arrival back in Cape Cod, he was greeted with the sad reality that a smallpox outbreak in 1617 had killed everyone in his tribe.
If you know American history, you know that the Pilgrims/Puritans arrived off Cape Cod in 1620, settling in a small village they called Plymouth after the British city from which they had fled. To their surprise, they found much of the land already cleared for farming, but no one around to farm it. After a very hard winter in which many died, a Native American named Samoset, who spoke broken English picked up from British sailors, walked into Plymouth and informed the inhabitants that they had settled on the land of the Patuxets, a fierce tribe that had been wiped out by disease and whose land no Indian would settle due to the "death curse" upon it. Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto, the only remaining Patuxet. It was Squanto who taught the Pilgrims how to farm the land and to fertilize the crops, in addition to showing them the best fishing and hunting grounds. Squanto saved the Pilgrims. One Pilgrim leader wrote about him, "He is a special instrument sent of God for our good, beyond our expectation." God, it seems, had providentially led the Pilgrims to the safest spot on the east coast for quick habitation, and provided an English-speaking guide. All that had to happen for this blessing to be realized was Squanto's illegal capture and slavery, the death of everyone he knew as a child and young man, and years of forced travel away from his homeland.
And so, that which appeared completely devoid of anything humane or positive was used by God not only for Squanto's salvation, but for the good of many people. The Pilgrims, by their own admission, likely would not have survived another winter without him.
Our study in Genesis has taught us that God is capable of turning negative events into positive events. A fall into sin occurs, but the hope of salvation follows. Corruption leads to the destruction of virtually all life on earth, but the dawning of a new day follows, with a covenant of peace and hope attached. Sin enters into that new world rapidly, but a family line is brought forth that will bring hope to the world. God chooses a common man out of a pagan land and blesses him abundantly. That man (Abram) leaves everything he knows and understands and arrives in a new homeland, where God returns upon he and his wife a child of promise and a progeny that resembles the very stars in the sky and the sands on the seashores. All of these events and a thousand more, both positive and negative, lead ultimately to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world and the hope of nations.
God has a tendency to show up in difficult times, and almost always in unexpected ways. It is a cycle that continues to this very day. Be encouraged today friends. As the poet William Cowper so beautifully expressed: "God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm... his purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower!"
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym