People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16: 7
Gleaming white. What a sight!
I couldn’t help but be struck this week by the pictures of the stricken former cruise liner, the Costa Concordia. The operation to refloat her with large caissons attached to either side to give extra buoyancy was recently completed. With these, her bow silhouette now resembled that of a cross!
The final act this week was to slowly tow her 170 miles in a 4 day journey back to the port of Genoa, where she was built, to be scrapped and cut up. A large net trailed behind her to capture any remaining items of passenger luggage and other items that might escape on this short last journey.
The Italian Prime Minister was there to acknowledge the two year salvage operation, acknowledge human folly and the tragic loss of life. Perhaps more than any other shipping disaster in recent years, this tragic accident gives us an insight into how people must have felt 100 years ago when news broke that the Titanic had sunk . Maybe when historians look back on maritime history in the decades to come, parallels may be drawn between both events which literally occurred 100 years apart. Safety standards today at sea have never been higher. However, just a small amount of damage in both cases proved fatal.
When the Costa Concordia set sail for her last cruise in 2012 she was resplendent, gleaming white and the pride of the fleet. Today she looks incredibly tarnished and disfigured. That reminded me of the description Jesus used to describe the religious leaders of the day when he exercised his public ministry. White sepulchres is a description not easily forgotten. It was intended to challenge them and I’m sure it did just that!
It also reminds us that sin lurks inside, driving our motives and our thinking, often unseen and hidden away. It challenges us to focus on the heart, as God does and not outward appearances. Get the heart right and our final journey will not be the ignominious one characterised by the Costa Concordia this week. Instead it will be a triumphant welcome home as we finally meet Jesus our Saviour face to face. Our sins washed away by his shed blood for us. That’s the way we can stand before him, gleaming white just as the Costa Concordia once was.
Kevin Borrett
August 2014
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