Daily Devotionals

Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life

Devotional: May 8th

In the mid to late nineteenth century lived an actor named Charles Coghlan. Coghlan was born in 1841 on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Though a world traveler as an actor he always returned to his home on the Island. He loved his beloved Canada and could not see spending his retirement years anywhere but there on Prince Edward Island.

In 1899, while appearing in Galveston, Texas, Charles Coghlan became gravely ill. He died before the turn of the century and, instead of being sent back to his native land, he was buried in a local cemetery in Galveston. His beloved homeland was evidently not to be his final resting place. Then the remarkable happened. A hurricane tore into the Galveston area on September 8, 1900.

The waters inundated the town flooding it terribly and washing away most of the town along with the cemetery in which were Charles Coghlan's remains. Seven years later a fisherman from Prince Edward Island noticed a large box floating in the water. He towed it to shore, cleaned it up and discovered that he had recovered the coffin of none other than native son Charles Coghlan.

The hurricane had swept the coffin into the Gulf of Mexico where it had been caught by the West Indian Current, carried into the Gulf Stream and deposited just a few miles from his Canadian birthplace. Charles Coghlan was home. Countless Christians have died over the years, men and women and children hoping to be alive to see the resurrection of the dead at Christ's return. How do they get to heaven?

They are in good hands. "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14 We need not worry about our departed loved ones in Christ. God will bear them safely to their home.