Daily Devotion

“I feel like some lonely forest pine, scathed and shattered by the lightnings of heaven. ... It is the Lord that has done it. God, I know, has done it in kindness to her and to us all, and for his own glory, and yet the tremendous stroke almost slays me.”

Jehu Lewis Shuck · Letter to his father-in-law, Hong Kong, November 1844, on the death of Henrietta Shuck; in J. B. Jeter, A Memoir of Mrs. Henrietta Shuck (1849), pp. 230–232

Scripture

Hebrews 12:26-27 God's voice shook the earth then, but now He promises, "Again, not only will I shake the earth, but also the heavens." The words "once again" mean that God will remove the things of creation that can be shaken so that the things that cannot be shaken will remain.

Reflection

In 1844, Jehu Lewis Shuck's wife Henrietta died suddenly in Hong Kong. He wrote that he felt "like some lonely forest pine, scathed and shattered by the lightnings of heaven," yet still confessed, "It is the Lord that has done it." Historical upheavals and life's upheavals are often the beginnings of God tilling the hard soil of our lives. Just as the smoke of the Opium Wars dismantled the closed-off nature of an ancient empire, our seemingly secure supports—wealth, health, or human schemes—are equally insignificant and fragile in the face of dramatic changes in circumstances. God allows upheavals to occur not for destruction, but to remove those temporary, created vanities, so that Christ's unshakable kingdom may remain firmly established and enduring in the depths of our souls. When circumstances shake us, do not panic; it is an opportunity for the seeds of the Gospel to be sown deep within.