On this day in 1506 Christopher Columbus died.

Christopher Columbus, the great Italian explorer, was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings in the 10^th century. But it was not an easy undertaking. Columbus’ bid to explore the New World was rejected once by the king of Portugal and at least twice by the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella before he found support for his journey.

In all, Columbus made four voyages to the New World. On his last voyage in 1502, he sailed for what is now Central America, searching for gold and a strait to connect him to the East Indies. But his ship was in such poor condition that Columbus and his crew were marooned on Jamaica for a year before a rescue ship arrived. He returned to Spain to discover that Queen Isabella had died three weeks earlier and that the king would no longer see him. Columbus died two years later a disappointed man, without fully realizing the scope of his achievement and how it had changed the world.

In Hebrews chapter 11, we discover that many of God’s people died without fully realizing the promises that God had given to them (Hebrews 11:13). Abraham died without seeing the nation that his descendants would one day become. The prophets died without seeing the Messiah, whose birth they had predicted. But what they did have was faith—”The confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen” (Hebrews 11:1). They did not die disappointed because they had a vision of heaven, “a better place, a heavenly homeland.”

It’s easy to get discouraged when circumstances get tough or when our plans don’t work out. That’s when we need to take courage from such heroes of the faith as Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, and to live in faith as they did.

All of these people we have mentioned received God’s approval because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised (Hebrews 11:39).

To Do

Read Hebrews chapter 11. Then compose an acrostic for F-A-I-T-H that helps you understand what it means to live by faith. For example, F could stand for Future dreams; A for Always believe, and so on.

Also on this day . . .

1837—Levi Strauss and his partner patented jeans.

1927—Charles Lindbergh flew his historic solo nonstop transatlantic flight.

1932—Amelia Earhart made her solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.