October 30 | Moments Almanac | Martians

To bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. At 20 minutes before 8 central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet.

Today is October 30th, and this is Moments Almanac. And on this day in 1938, the world was coming to an end. At least that's what some Americans thought. That evening, a young actor named Orson Wells interrupted a radio program with alarming reports of strange objects falling from the sky. Martians had landed in New Jersey. Their machines were advancing. Humanity was under attack. It was all fiction, of course. A radio adaptation of HG Wells The War of the Worlds. But some listeners missed the introduction, others tuned in late, and suddenly an imaginary invasion became a very real source of fear. Police stations received frantic calls, families wondering where to hide. Some listeners were convinced the world was falling apart. The widespread panic was later exaggerated by newspapers, but the fear experienced by some listeners was genuine. And here's something remarkable. Exactly twenty eight years earlier, on october thirtieth, nineteen ten, a man named Henry Dunnant died in Switzerland. Dunnett had witnessed a world falling apart, not an imaginary one, but a real one. In eighteen fifty nine, he happened upon the aftermath of the Battle of Sulferino in northern Italy. Thousands of wounded soldiers lay suffering, many without adequate medical care. Dunnett was horrified. But rather than turn away, he began organizing help. He enlisted local villagers to care for the wounded, regardless of which army they served. His compassion eventually helped give birth to the International Red Cross, and what I think makes his story especially meaningful is that Dunant was a man of deep Christian faith. Years earlier, he helped establish the YMCA in Geneva, bringing young men together for prayer, Bible study, and service. For Dunant, faith wasn't simply something to believe, it was something to do. Two stories, one date. One reminds us how easily fear can convince us that the world is ending, and the other reminds us what love can accomplish when someone's world really is ending. And that's where Jesus calls us to live. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the hero wasn't the man with the most impressive religious credentials. He was the one who stopped, who knelt beside a stranger, who bound his wounds, who refused to walk past suffering. Jesus ended the story with these simple words go and do likewise. The world can be a frightening place. Sometimes the threats are imagined and sometimes they're terribly real. But followers of Jesus have never been called merely to survive a frightened world. We've been called to love it. And when someone's world is falling apart, perhaps the most Christ-like thing we can do is to help them pick up the pieces. And that's Moments Almanac for October 30th. I hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments and share the grace.