August 5 | Moments Almanac | Splice

Welcome to Moments Almanac for August the 5th. Two ships drift in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where the future of global communication hangs on a single splice. The year is 1858. It's July, and this is the third attempt. The first cable had snapped after about 400 miles, disappearing forever into the cold Atlantic Ocean. The second attempt broke twice more. Defeat had become almost expected, but there is just enough cable left for one final try. The Agamemnon and the Niagara meet in mid-ocean, carefully join their cable ends together and steam away from one another, paying out wire into the depths. On August 5th, both ships reach their respective shores on the very same day. And for the first time in human history, words leap across an ocean in minutes instead of weeks. Humanity had stitched two continents together, and yet August 5th had witnessed another connection long before copper ever touched the sea. In the year 616, a young Northumbrian prince named Oswald is driven from his homeland and finds refuge on a tiny island called Iona, off Scotland's western coast. There, among Irish monks, the exiled boy is baptized into the Christian faith. 18 years later, Oswald returns to reclaim his father's throne. He defeats a rival king, becomes the ruler of Northumbria, and remembers the faith that reached him across the water. So he sends back word to Iona, send someone who can tell my people what you told me. The first missionary, a bishop named Cormann, soon gives up, declaring the Northumbrians too stubborn to be taught. So Iona tries again. This time they send a gentle monk named Aiden. One problem though, Aiden yet cannot speak the language of the people, but Oswald can. Having learned Irish Gaelic during his years of exile, the king stands beside the missionary and translates every sermon, sentence by sentence, word by word, a king translating for a missionary monk is no small thing. Oswald is placing the weight of his crown behind the words that are not his own. Every sentence he interprets quietly declares, This is the truest thing I know. And through that partnership, the mission at Lindisfarne takes root and becomes one of the great centers of Christian witness in England. Oswald himself would not see how far those seeds would spread. On today's date, August 5th, 642, he's killed in a battle against a pagan king, Pinda of Mercia. Tradition says that with his dying breath he prayed for the souls of his soldiers. Oswald was no stained glass saint. He was a warrior. He fought battles, he shed blood. Grace didn't erase his past, it redirected his future. Back in the Atlantic, celebration over the cable does not last long either. Within weeks the signal begins to fade. By September the line has fallen silent. It will take another eight years before a permanent transatlantic cable finally succeeds. Both connections, the wire and the mission, were built only after repeated failure. Both proved more fragile than their builders hoped. But fragility is not the same as futility. Perhaps that's one of God's favorite ways of working. He delights in carrying eternal things through fragile ones, ink on paper, bread and wine, a shepherd sling, fishermen's nets, an exile prince, a weathered missionary, and ordinary Christians who simply keep passing the story along. The Atlantic cable failed. Oswald died. Aiden eventually died. Even kingdoms pass away, yet neither story ended where it seemed to end. The broken cable had already proven the ocean could be crossed. The faithful missionary had already proven that the gospel could be translated. Once a path has been opened, someone else will walk in it. Someone else will sail in it, someone else will kneel beside the broken line, splice it together, and send the message onward once again. Charles Wesley wrote, Oh, four a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. Perhaps every Christian is one of those tongues, another living link in a line stretching from Christ Himself through countless ordinary believers to someone who has not yet heard. We rarely know how far the message will travel. We are simply asked to keep the line open. Proverbs 2525 says, As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is the good news from a far country. And it's our good news, and it is a new day, August 5th. Thanks for joining me for Moments Almanac. I hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments and share the grace.