The Sunday Sermonette. Just Thoughts.
In the chaotic months following Japan’s unconditional surrender on September 2nd, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, there were thousands of people from all walks of life still living in horrific conditions in Japanese concentration camps in China. In an effort to return imprisoned American citizens to the United States as soon as possible, The U.S. State Department chartered numerous ships from different shipping companies.
One of these ships was the MS Gripsholm, a vessel that bore witness to incredible postwar events. Built for the Swedish-American Line in 1924, she made over 33 repatriation voyages from places like Bombay, Shanghai, Mozambique, and Lisbon after the war. On board, she carried diverse groups of individuals, that included imprisoned diplomats, wounded soldiers, terrified women and children, and missionaries like Miss Florence Miller. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my dear mother met Miss Miller while attending Clark College in Newton, Mississippi. In Mom’s college journal, which I’ve written about in times past, she typed the following:
Miss Florence Miller, mississonary to China, came home on the Gripsholm, after being imprisoned in a concentration camp in China by Japan. She is a graduate of B.B.I (I don’t know what this is.) and talked to us in fellowship. (A meeting after church, perhaps?) She said, “We want to thank you for your prayers and thank God, not for keeping them (I assume Mom meant the prisoners) from danger, but keeping them from the fear of danger.” She said that as she began the journey home on the Gripsholm, she opened her Bible and read where the Psalmist said the sea is the Lord’s and he made them, and then as they came finally to New York, she read in the Psalm, “He drew me out of many waters.” She said she didn’t know what the Psalmist meant when he wrote that, but as they went through the waters, the captain would say it always choppy here, you are bound to get sick. But it would be just as calm and no one got seasick and many of the passengers could not understand. She said, “We know why we were freed from the concentration camp. Why the waters were calm. Why we came home and we thank you for your prayers. Wonderful things can be done through prayer.”
Miss Miller’s words must have touched Mom’s heart. Her typed statement is not perfect, but its message is! It resonates with the awe-inspiring power of prayer. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman availeth much.” The college’s prayers, along with other people’s prayers for those imprisoned, brought about their freedom from the camps. It was prayer that calmed the mighty Atlantic. And it was prayer that brought them home. Such is the power of prayer, a force that can open prison gates and calm seas.
Mom also typed several passages from the Bible. Hebrews 2:18 tells us that Jesus was tempted, so he can help us when we are tempted to give up during life’s struggles. She wrote, “We can’t take wings and fly across the ocean, but He enables us to adjust ourselves to our particular situation, or in whatever conditions we find ourselves.”
Mom titled this page in her journal “Just Thoughts.” As they flowed from her mind to her fingers, she didn’t stop to correct what she had typed. She didn’t worry about mistyped words or incorrect punctuation—no, she didn’t. But Mom did type the missionary’s words and how they touched her heart. Perhaps Miss Miller’s words about the wonderful things that can be accomplished through prayer may touch your heart as well.
Ponder this and go forth.
