An American History Lesson With A Biblical Application

On a hot July day in 1861, just north of the small town of Manassas, Virginia, a turning point in American history took place. The Confederates would come to call it the First Battle of Manassas while the Yankees called it the Battle of Bull Run.  Whatever name is attached to it, however, the bloody battle marked the first major conflict of the American Civil War.  Manassas ended in a Confederate victory which shocked the Union and emboldened the South. 
 
An oft overlooked fact about the battlefield itself concerns the man who owned it.  Much of the First Battle of Manassas was fought on the outlying fields of a plantation owned by one Wilmer McLean.
 
When the smoke of the battle cleared and the bodies of the dead were buried, Wilmer McLean abruptly abandoned his Manassas plantation and moved his family to a remote Virginia town where he said it was “a given” that the horrific sounds of battle would never again trouble his family.

Wilmer McLean (May 3, 1814 - June 5, 1882)

​However, in an odd twist of history McLean’s “given” turned out to be anything but.  The remote town he moved to was called Appomattox Courthouse. To this place, four years after the battle of Bull Run, Robert E. Lee, led his weary, rag-clad Rebel army.  His mission was to negotiate terms of surrender with General Grant.
 
 Sending out an aide to select a suitable place for the two to meet the aide chose the front room of a home owned by – you guessed it – Wilmer McLean.  The great war that had begun in McLean’s front yard was now to end, many miles away, in his front parlor.  When interviewed by a newspaper many years later, Wilmer McLean said of the Civil War, “I was the Alpha and Omega of that contest.”
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 McLean’s story goes to show how very few things in this life are “givens.”
He had thought, if he moved his family away from Manassas that it would be “a given” they would escape further involvement in the war...  but things turned out very differently.
            
We can learn a great deal from McLean...  especially about things that we believe are “givens” in life.
 
We need to remind ourselves that it is NOT a given that we’ll:
  

• have a successful career
• be surrounded by a loving family
• enjoy good health
• have a good job
• have another birthday

             
So where do we we turn to find true "givens?"  Where are we to discover truths that will never let us down?
 
The Lord Jesus said:
 
     “He who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
 
The only “givens” in this life are those things laid down in the unchanging, immovable, immutable rock of God’s Word.