What God Hath Wrought

My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped. I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. (Psalm 17:5-7 ESV). The year was 1844 and on in May of that year communications were changed forever. In a demonstration witnessed by members of Congress, American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse dispatches a telegraph message from the US Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland. The message he sent was "What Hath God Wrought?" It was telegraphed back to the Capitol a moment later by Vail. The question, taken from the Bible (Numbers 23:23), had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the daughter of the commissioner of patents. Morse, an accomplished painter, learned of a French inventor's idea of an electric telegraph in 1832 and then spent the next 12 years attempting to perfect a working telegraph instrument. During this period, he composed the Morse code, a set of signals that could represent language in telegraph messages, and convinced Congress to finance a Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph line. On May 24, 1844, he inaugurated the world's first commercial telegraph line with a message that was fitting given the invention's future effects on American life. Just a decade after the first line opened, more than 20,000 miles of telegraph cable crisscrossed the country. The rapid communication it enabled greatly aided American expansion, making railroad travel safer as it provided a boost to business conducted across the great distances of a growing United States. There are many days when I use my computer and electronic mail that I marvel at the technology that has brought so much into our lives. Sometimes I try to remember how it was before I had a computer and it becomes more difficult with each milestone we reach technologically. However, the greatest marvel is not to be found in technology, but in our ability to speak to and be heard by God. When David wrote the psalm we read this morning, he understood this same miracle. God DOES hear our petitions! I wonder why so few people don’t really take advantage of this miracle. Perhaps like technology they have not been educated nor informed. Or, worse, perhaps they have become so entrenched in old habits and ways that they refuse to try something different. Business leaders laud their ability to think “outside the box.” In some ways we need to do that today as Christians. The need of the hour is to turn our focus and attention to prayer. At no time in our history has there been a more dangerous time in which to live. The only hope is to be found in the power and presence of God. Prayer is the answer. Have you prayed today? If not, then why not do so now?