ALMOST!

Many stories have been written about the sinking of the Titanic and what happened aboard the ship on that fateful night – a hundred and 13 years ago this month (April 14-15, 1912). However, many do not know what did not take place because of small events that changed the course of history!

The riches of passengers had rooms and suites closest to the main deck. Many other individuals, whose names are little known, traveled and died in third-class cabins on the lowest decks of the Titanic. In today’s money, the tickets to cruise aboard the Titanic’s maiden voyage to America ranged from $80,000 for prime accommodations to $700.00.

Many individuals ALMOST died aboard the Titanic but were spared only because, while they had purchased tickets to travel to America aboard the Titanic, they never boarded!

Just like “Ocean Gate’s” disaster in 2023, some people changed their minds and/or decided not to get aboard the submergible. “Marc and Sharon Hagle, of Winter Park, Florida, paid $105,129 each to participate in an OceanGate voyage.” They planned for such a trip since 2017, but the trip was repeatedly canceled or postponed multiple times, and they never took the journey (nor got their money back). Interestingly, the Ocean Gate tragedy took place as it dove 13,000 feet down to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

Obviously, only the stories of the most prominent individuals who did not board the Titanic have been widely published. Financial magnates such as J. P. (John Pierpont) Morgan who attended the launching party in 1911 but canceled his ticket because he was unable to make the voyage because he was still vacationing in France.

Milton Hershey wrote a $300.00 check to the White Star Lines to reserve a place for him and his wife aboard the Titanic. However, again, he could not get back in time from his previous vacation trip to Europe. Presently, that $300.00 check is part of the Hersey archives.

Guglielmo Marconi, Nobel prize winner, never boarded the Titanic but switched ships and traveled on the Lusitania. He switched ships because he trusted his personal secretary, Mr. Magrini, to be more efficient using the newly invented Marconi wireless. It was the Marconi wireless that was used to send warnings to the Titanic about ice fields, as well as used to send the distress calls from the Titanic to other ships in the area.

His daughter ,Degna Marconi wrote in her book, “My Father Marconi” . . .

She [My Mother] and Father were invited by the White Star Line to be guests on the maiden voyage of the Titanic but their plans went awry. Father switched his passage to the Lusitania, which departed three days earlier, because he had a mountain of paperwork to clear away and knew that the public stenographer on the Lusitania was quick and competent.”

Henry Frick, chairman of Carnegie Steel, and his wife never boarded the Titanic because Mrs. Frick severely strained her ankle, and it required medical attention and treatment.

Theodore Dreiser, a renowned American Journalist, wrote about his close call with death aboard the Titanic. A publisher had talked Dreiser into sailing from Dover, on April 13th, taking a much slower ship, the Kroonland, back to America . . . .

There are many accounts of individuals who ALMOST died, but because they changed their plans at the last minute, took another flight, didn’t take that cruise, took a different route, changed their routine, or were not able to make the celebration and lived to see another day.

As John Mott, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and longtime leader of the Young Men’s Christian Aassociation, said after hearing the news that the Titanic he had planned on taking to America had sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic, “The Good Lord must have more work for us to do.”

If you are still alive, it is because the Lord still wants to work in your heart and with your life. While life’s ALMOSTS seem like good luck or chance, actually, the Lord is ordering our lives.

Perhaps you ALMOST experienced a disaster or tragedy that would have significantly changed or ended your life, as it did for others. It may be because the Lord still wants to talk to you about Jesus and your need for a Saviour. You still need to make a decision that would change all of eternity

Or, perhaps the Lord rescued you because the Lord still wants to use your life to help, challenge, or change the lives of others. You need to see the importance of your time and place in life on behalf of others.

The ALMOSTS of life are times to reflect on God’s goodness, will, and purpose!