Final Destination

Holding Ellen close in front of me; arms spread recklessly wide on the bow; the wind tussling my flowing locks ???😊 . . . Titanic is one of my favorite films.

Last week Ellen and I visited the Titanic exhibit just over the mountain from us. Definitely a more historic venue versus Pigeon Forge’s standard lively entertainment attractions, us ole duffers thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Perhaps attributable to my ‘advanced state of maturity’, viewing the Titanic displays and reading its history subtly imparted an ambivalent sense of gratitude that I’ve never been steerage class, and a somber realization of life’s uncertain brevity.

On April,14 1912 over 1,500 souls unexpectedly met their final destination 2 ½ miles beneath the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.  The pride of the White Star Line and world’s largest ocean liner at the time, the magnificent, unsinkable’ vessel struck an iceberg and sunk in less than 3 hours.

Aboard the Titanic White Star Line promoted the Have/Have-Not class culture of the late nineteenth century. Opulently furnished $4,350 top-deck staterooms were reserved for society’s elite extravagantly wealthy. Second-class decks below were occupied by the moderately wealthy.  Beneath in Titanic’s bowels, overcrowded $40 steerage berths housed the ship’s servants, workers and immigrants. While the third-class passengers were segregated from the upper classes, they were not cruelly locked behind gates as the Titanic sank as portrayed in the film. Titanic’s survival statistics graphically depicted society’s preferential Have/Have-Not class culture:

61 % of first-class survived – 42% of second-class survived   – 34% of third-class survived

Sadly, today’s society’s class culture, while perhaps not quite as overt as in the late nineteenth century, still subscribes to  “Follow the Money” standard.

When the catastrophic news of the Titanic reached England, hysterical, heartbroken relatives and friends gathered at White Star Line’s Liverpool office to learn the fate of their loved ones.

A board outside the office displayed Titanic’s passenger list … not by first, second, steerage class, wealth, or societal status . . . all passengers were listed in one of two explicitly labeled columns . . . “LOST” or “SAVED”

Today each of us is an unknown moment in time away from encountering our life’s terminal ‘iceberg’ and arriving at our final destination. It won’t be determined by whatever successes we may have achieved; failures experienced; societal or career status; religion, fame, fortune, fate, luck, or happenstance.  Our Creator has mercifully granted every person the personal choice to either accept, reject or ignore that, some 2,000 years ago, God sent his Son to literally love us to death, and claim Heaven as our final destination for eternity.

Each soul that tragically perished on the Titanic unexpectedly arrived at their final eternal destination. Known only in Heaven’s ledger, those who had chosen to reject or ignore God’s gift of Salvation went Down in the  “LOST” column. Those who had chosen to accept Jesus as their Savior went Up in the “SAVED” column.

Somewhere out there each of our terminal ‘iceberg’ looms. May you navigate life’s course joyfully, and your final destination choice be written in Heaven’s ledger’s  “SAVED” column for eternity.

Keep Looking Up ^ . . . His Best is Yet to Come!