Monday Morning Music Ministry

6-22-26

This last week, evidently with the Wanderlust still coursing through my veins, we hit the road again, driving from Michigan to Ohio for a convention of my wife’s family reunion; thence to Kentucky and Tennessee. People – old friends and new – are always fun; but Mickey and I managed to see new sights and sites too.

Without our planning, there were unifying themes and affinities along the way. God lit our paths.

Our main targets were the famous Ark Encounter and the related Creation Museum in Kentucky.

The former museum is a 100 per cent re-creation of Noah’s Ark, built according to the Bible’s construction details. Large (of course), Ken Ham’s museum and the nearby Creation Museum are mature walk-throughs overflowing (sorry) with signage, information, models, animals, dioramas, and please-touch displays that anticipate the questions of adults, and excite the imaginations of children. It is neither condescending nor preachy, but yet cites the answers in Genesis to a multitude of questions about Creation, seeming anomalies in the Bible, the age of rocks, and, ultimately, the Rock of Ages.

At the other end of the spectrum, at the end of our trip we visited the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Spending a few days with my friends Penny and Norm Carlevato (Norm is this blog’s webmaster) and my old writing buddy Diane Obbema, afforded us the opportunity virtually to set sail on the replica – 50 per cent sized – of the ill-fated White Star luxury ship. Penny has written several books on the Titanic.

This was also very impressive: reconstructed rooms; a wealth of information – everything about the astounding construction to biographies of every passenger; displays of retrieved artifacts; the ability to plunge your arm into the 28-degree water into which passengers plunged; and, again, signage and stats and history at every turn.

As I mentioned, it was not our intention to visit in one vacation the world’s premier museums devoted to history’s most famous boats – the ancient Ark and the famous luxury liner that sank in 1912. Yet the contrasts, and the affinities, were compelling.

There is a joke that virtually has become an aphorism about the two ships. To wit, the reminder that the Ark was built by amateurs, but Titanic was built by professionals. It has been attributed to humorist Dave Barry, preacher Joel Osteen, and performers Mark Lowery and Toby Mac; its launching has floated a thousand quips. Most recently Titanic has inspired TV productions, motion pictures, all sorts of merchandising, and notable scrambles for the salvaging of its treasures.

Beyond the jokes (and the truths) about perspectives that we should recognize, and motivations we ought to emulate, are very serious lessons.

Yes, the Ark was built by amateurs, Noah and his sons. But these guys were not half-wits wondering what ends of primitive hammers to hold. This was a time in God’s temporal dispensation when He communicated with His children (one reason for His heartbreak over humankind’s rejection of Him and His precepts). Read Genesis chapters 6 through 9 and review the ship’s length and width; the kinds of wood to use; the pitch to make the ship watertight; and calculate that the construction was over decades, perhaps more than a hundred years (in pre-Flood times people lived longer than today). And so forth. Two animals of every kind? That was practical in a time of earth’s history when there were “kinds” of dogs, for instance, before breeding, cross-bredding, and species variations. Dinosaurs? Young dinosaurs might have been the dragons, leviathans, and behemoths in Biblical accounts and fossil records.

The Ark’s “builder and maker” was the Lord; Noah and his sons handled the tools.

The Titanic might not have been designed by God, but there were many hands in the science of its design. There were many hands involved in its construction – over several years Harland and Wolff (for the White Star Line) was the largest employer in Ireland. And there were many records set by the ship, even before it sailed. For instance, it was the largest moveable transportation machine in the world; it was certainly the most luxurious ocean liner of its day; and so forth.

Yet Bruce Ismay, head of the White Star Line (although J P Morgan had a controlling interest), was obsessed with PR-related records being set. An eyewitness claimed she heard Ismay urging extra speed on Captain Edward Smith during the voyage. Smith, by the way, went down with the ship as per the naval honor code; Ismay hopped on the last lifeboat and lived another 25 years in general obloquy.

We are confronted by tempting contrasts between the two ships, their manner of construction, and their fates.

• The Ark was built in obedience; Titanic was built according to commercial desires.
• The Ark’s goal was to rescue creatures of God’s creation; Titanic’s goal was to attract paying customers from rivals.
• The Ark followed God’s instructions; Titanic occasionally cut corners with iron rivets instead of steel, among the shortcuts.
• The Ark provided for all creatures great and small, animal and human; Titanic was allowed to have fewer lifeboats than passengers.
• … and so forth.

There is no doubt that Titanic was an engineering marvel, and many amenities were gracious, for instance the higher standards of third-class accommodations. The Ark – whether of Biblical fidelity or legend – was no less, perhaps greater, of a marvel. Thousands of years before Christ, watertight, sufficient for animate creation’s survival.

I suggest that there are many lessons to be drawn in this comparison. Some are obvious; some become evident when we contemplate the times, motivations, and fates. Amateurs vs professionals? It is a question of limited relevance – floating or sinking, so to speak, according to whether we heed the large question: do we listen for God’s direction or do we follow human desires?

Answers will come flooding upon your thoughts.

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Click: The Old Gospel Ship