It was a stormy night on the ship in 1620. They were crossing the Atlantic Ocean, heading for their new home in America. Here was finally a place where they could practice their Christianity freely without being persecuted. But the little ship was very rickety and had seen better days. The Mayflower was designed to carry cargo, not passengers. The Pilgrims slept on hard wooden floors below deck on a constantly rocking boat. Two of the women were seven months pregnant. There were thirty children on board.
For most of the journey, the skies were dark, the ocean swelled, the wind blew, the weather was cold and it rained constantly. The Mayflower’s crew were roughneck sailors and weren’t the least bit interested in these ‘quiet religious’ folks or their children.
During yet another storm, a 25-year-old Pilgrim named John Howland went up on deck to assist the crew. When the Mayflower listed heavily, he fell overboard. He desperately grabbed one of the ropes hanging down from one of the masts, just before the ocean pulled him under.
IF John Howland had been a little slower or IF a few crewmen hadn’t been right there to haul him in, America might look very different today.
You see, three of John Howland’s descendants became two Presidents and one Governor:
George H.W. Bush—41st President of the U.S.
George W. Bush—43rd President of the U.S. and a previous Governor of Texas
Jeb Bush—past Governor of Florida
Other U.S. Presidents whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower:
John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Zachary Taylor, Teddy Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is said that as many as 35 million people worldwide are descended from those few dozen Pilgrims.
Romans 8:28 says “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.”
We may not completely understand why things happen the way they do, but we can rest in the fact that God is with us in the storms of our life and He will redeem even bad situations.
