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On December 7, we recognize the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The terrible event involved over 2,000 US deaths and brought death to a tropical paradise. Lost in the severity of the attack and US entrance to World War II is the evidence that the US had suggestions such an attack was imminent.
Signs of a Japanese attack on the US were present months prior, the morning of, and during the attack. Yet each piece of evidence was denied or ignored. In the months prior to the attack, the Japanese consulate in Hawaii was found burning documents. In the 1940s, burning documents was often a sign that a nation was preparing for war. Indeed, the Japanese were preparing, while the US ignored the sign. Even at the morning of the attack, Japanese submarines were caught sneaking around the entrance to Pearl Harbor. Diligent US seamen recognized the subs as a threat and sank one the morning of December 7th. The evidence could not have been more clear, yet the story of these seamen was denied. At the 11th hour of the attack, US radar operators observed a large number of airplanes bearing down on Honolulu from the northwest, the wrong direction for planes from North America. Even this was passed off as a glitch in the radar as there was an expected arrival of planes from the mainland. However, the planes should have come from the northeast and would have been in significant fewer numbers instead of the three waves of planes spotted on the instruments. As each piece of evidence of an attack was denied or ignored, the cost of denial grew. Historian Gordon W. Prange wrote a thorough account of Pearl Harbor in his aptly titled book “At Dawn We Slept”. We know the result. Disbelief, ironically, grown from disbelief.
Yet each of us has a little Pearl Harbor in our lives. Just like those who denied the signs of Pearl Harbor, those who see God’s hand yet don’t believe live in self-imposed denial. In our search for certainty that God exists, we create such a strict criteria for acceptable evidence that we fail to see the very real events and occurrences in our lives. God is pursuing us, yet we regularly cast it aside looking for the evidence we want, not what God has shown us. Does this mean that similar to Pearl Harbor we are destined to have death rain down from above while we drown in the waters below? That would be a harsh God indeed!
Despite the disaster of December 7th, there was a subsequent battle: Midway. The US Navy, largely decimated by Pearl Harbor, battled the Japanese Navy in the middle of the world’s largest ocean. Prange recorded the battle in his book “Miracle at Midway” in which he describes how the outclassed and outnumbered US carrier group somehow repelled the Japanese armada.
Similarly, as we swim through the ocean of life, God meets us where we are in our imperfection. We are battered, missing key components, and seemingly inadequate. Yet through the miracle of Grace, God chooses us to be his winning navy. Pearl Harbor was a disaster for the US, but it was not the last word. God’s miracle of Grace through Jesus Christ is the last word.
Later this month we’ll celebrate the coming of Jesus, God meeting us at Midway in the middle of the ocean. We can choose to accept or deny God’s existence from our life experiences, but do we want to relinquish control to anything other than ourselves? We have the opportunity to share the anticipation and arrival with others at meals or gatherings. An enjoyable gathering for all means that we will have to compromise and not everything will go as we planned. Like ships in an armada that has their own rudder, gathering with others reaps greater rewards than flying solo.
So go forth this season and keep your radar open, mindful of God’s hand at work. Enjoy the community of others, it’s how God wants us to live. Should you miss any signs, fear not for God sends Jesus to meet you in the middle of an otherwise lonely ocean.
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