October 20 | Moments Almanac | Rebuilding

Welcome to Moments Almanac. Some fires destroy buildings, others destroy dreams, and sometimes when the flames have finally died, something remarkable begins to rise from the ashes. Today is October 20th, and on this date, three men were born centuries apart, each of whom would leave behind a story of catastrophe and the things that cannot be destroyed. Our first story begins in London. In September of 1666, a fire broke out at a bakery on Pudding Lane. What began as a small blaze became one of the most devastating fires in English history. For four days flames swept through London, consuming homes, businesses, churches, and entire neighborhoods. When the smoke finally cleared, much of this medieval city was gone. Among the ruins stood the remains of St. Paul's Cathedral, but in the ashes of old London, an extraordinary opportunity awaited a man named Christopher Wren. Wren had been born on october twentieth, sixteen thirty two. He was a mathematician, an astronomer, scientist, and architect, and now he would help rebuild a city. Over the following decades, Wren designed fifty one churches to replace those destroyed in the Great Fire. His crowning achievement was the magnificent new Saint Paul's Cathedral with its soaring dome rising above the London sky. It would take decades to complete, but Rin understood something important. The fire had destroyed the buildings, it had not destroyed the church. And sometimes what rises from the ashes becomes a testimony greater than what stood before. Now travel with me from London to India, more than a century later. Our second man was also born on october twentieth. His name was William Ward, born in Derby, England, in seventeen sixty nine. Ward was the son of a carpenter and builder, but instead of building with bricks and timber, Ward would spend much of his life building with letters, he was a printer, and that skill would become an extraordinary instrument in the hands of God. Years earlier, missionary William Carey had recognized the importance of Ward's trade. If God blessed the missionary work in India, Carey reasoned, they would need someone who could print the scriptures, and Ward became that man. He joined Carey and Joshua Marshman in Sarampore, where they undertook the enormous task of translating and printing the Bible in the languages of India and beyond. Imagine the painstaking work, individual letters of type, page after page, language after language, all so that the people who had never held a Bible in their own language might finally read the words of life, and then came the night of march eleventh, eighteen twelve fire. The printing office in Sarinpur was engulfed in flames. Twelve years of accumulated work, equipment, manuscripts, and printed material were devastated in a matter of hours. Imagine standing before those ruins, the smell of smoke, the charred remains of years of labor, the terrible silence after everything you've worked on has gone up in flames. But Ward began searching through the wreckage, and there, among the ruins, he discovered something extraordinary. Many of the steel punches and molds used to create printing type had survived. The fire had consumed so much, but not everything. Within a month the presses were running again. The work continued. The scriptures would still be printed, the gospel would still be proclaimed, the mission would not end in ashes. Christopher Wren rebuilt churches out of stone and William Ward rebuilt the means of putting God's word into human hands. Both men discovered that a fire might destroy, but it can't necessarily destroy what God has called us to do. And there's one more october twentieth birthday I want to mention, Horatio Spafford. Born on the state in eighteen twenty eight. Spafford was a successful Chicago attorney and a man of deep Christian faith, but his life was marked by an extraordinary tragedy. The Great Chicago fire of eighteen seventy one damaged his financial interests, and two years later his wife and four daughters were traveling across the Atlantic when their ship collided with another vessel and sank. His wife survived, all four daughters died. Later Spafford wrote the words of a hymn that has comforted countless people walking through their own season of loss. When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Three men, three October 20th birthdays, and three reminders that what matters most in life cannot always be measured by what remains standing. Christopher Wren gave London a cathedral, William Ward gave scriptures to people who had never read them before, and Horatio Spafford gave A Grieving World a song. And that's the thought worth carrying with us today on October 20th. We can spend so much of our lives trying to protect the things we've built, our homes, our careers, our plans, our carefully constructed dreams. But sometimes life brings a fire we never saw coming. And when it does, the question isn't simply what we've lost, it's what remains. Faith remains, hope remains, love remains. And the God who was present before the fire still is present when the smoke clears. Sometimes he gives us strength to rebuild, and sometimes he gives us courage to begin again. And sometimes when rebuilding is impossible, he gives us a song. It is well, it is well with my soul. And that's Moments Almanac for October 20th. Please join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments, and share the grace.