When Humpty Falls

And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish and strengthen you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. — 1 Peter 5:10 RSV

An old time favorite nursery rhyme tells of an egg that took an unfortunate tumble and, as all eggs do—shattered. Many of you may know it by heart or have certainly heard it before. It goes like this:

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

According to those who know about such things, this piece of wisdom is a relic that may be over a thousand years old. Nobody knows exactly who or what Humpty Dumpty was. The rhyme was first printed in 1810 and became famous through Lewis Caroll’s book, Alice Through the Looking Glass, where Humpty Dumpty is shown as a round egg. In its primitive stages, however, Humpty Dumpty may have initially been a riddle that asked the question,

“What, when broken, can never be repaired, not even by strong or wise individuals?” The answer is an egg and regardless of how hard we try, a broken egg can never be put back together again. We simply have to live with the mess!

Today we commemorate and relive in a sense, a Humpty Dumpty story in America—when our nation took a great fall. We simply refer to it now as “9/11” and almost everyone knows the reference in our country’s history. In a sense, it’s a broken egg story but one that could ultimately have a much better ending. In the nursery rhyme, “All the kings horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.” In the secular sense and in man’s efforts, that’s probably true.

Attempts have been made, of course, but most recognize that our country is hated more than ever by the connections and offshoots of the original killers. Thousands of lives were lost forever and remaining loved ones continue to suffer from scars that may never to be healed. Millions of dollars in physical damages, as well as the emotional damages to a nation’s psyche has led us to an uncertain hope that it will never happen again. Most agree, however, that it probably will.

Many of the news pundits today are making the same observations that were made fourteen years ago about our nation’s attackers. The names have changed, a few have been brought to justice but, as one said frankly, “Americans are going to have to get used to the idea that many people in the world just don’t like us—in fact, they hate us. They don’t like our life-style, they don’t like our freedoms, they don’t like our wealth and they don’t like our God—and they’ll do anything to destroy us.”

There is an interesting parallel to these times and events that is found in the epistle of First Peter—that not only addresses the issue of being hated by others but also tells us what God will do for his people when they have taken a great fall and have faced unprecedented suffering and affliction but steadfastly trust in him.

When Peter wrote his epistle the early church was scattered, not by choice, all over the Roman Empire and experiencing great suffering and persecution. The infamous Nero was the Emperor and his atrocities were far worse than the World Trade Center terrorists’ acts and numbers of people killed. Christians were tied up in animal skins and hunted down by wild dogs for sport. They were rolled in pitch, impaled on stakes and torched to provide light to the Emperor’s gardens. And who has not heard of tossing the Christians to the lions for recreational fun in the Roman Coliseum? But through it all God promised complete and absolute restoration when a nation puts their trust in him.

It is popular on this day to post or record one’s recollection as to where you were when 9/11 took place. What I remember is that just a day or so after the event our nation’s Congress held a prayer vigil in the Rotunda of the Capitol. Strong prayers were lifted up asking “Almighty God” to restore this land and help us during these difficult times. As the cameras panned the gathering, a few held their stoic demeanor, apparently unaffected by the appeals to God—but others appeared to be deeply moved, brushing away tears of sorrow and perhaps repentance. Unfortunately, we don’t see much of that anymore from our nation’s leaders.

Some of you may have been among the hundred or so who attended the prayer meeting at our church that week and in the days that followed when we asked our heavenly Father to help us and lift us up and not give up on America. Hundreds of similar prayer meetings were held all over our city for the next few weeks as well as thousands in our country because believers knew that God had promised that our cries would not fall on deaf ears (Psalm 116:1-2). We don’t see much of that anymore either.

The truth is that no matter what we may go through personally or as a nation, God has given us the steps to finding peace and comfort in him in any and all circumstances, including what our nation and others like us are facing today. God promises that the suffering we endure will only be for short season, “a little while” if we will put our trust in him. It will not be forever. It will only be long enough for God to accomplish his plan and purposes and that good will prevail (Romans 8:28-30).

But that’s not all there is to this marvelous promise from the apostle Peter. Even though God has legions of angels at his disposal that were created to do his bidding and to fight the battles in the heavenlies and “to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14), in this proclamation he promises that he, himself, will not only respond to our rescue and save us—but that he will completely restore that which has been lost and bring renewed strength, while firmly establishing us once again in our rightful position and inheritance in him (1 Peter 5:10-11). That’s where our hope lies today in America during this time of our commemoration of a national tragedy.

Yes, God will bless America once again but only when we turn our hearts back to him.

— Pastor Don