On this day in history, two assassinations could have been recorded rather than one. Or perhaps an assassination could have been prevented. We will never know how different decisions could have affected the outcome of this day in 1865. Let me share the story.
President Lincoln wanted to attend Laura Keene’s performance in Our American Cousin at the Ford Theater. Lincoln invited 15 different people to go with him, starting with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commander of all the Union troops. Grant, though, turned down the offer, choosing rather to take the 6:15 p.m. train to New Jersey to see his grandkids.
Others turned down the offer as well for a variety of reasons. One refused because they didn’t like Mrs. Lincoln. Others claimed prior engagements, work, sickness, family, and travel. Even their oldest son, Capt. Robert Lincoln, rejected the invitation in order to go to bed early. Twelve-year-old Tad said he wasn’t even asked but that was okay because he wanted to see a different play which he saw with friends at Grover’s Theater.
Finally, the Lincolns were able to get some guests to attend the play with them. Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancé, Clara Harris, were friends with the president and agreed to go.
In a different scene, we have an actor from the south named John Wilkes Booth. His loyalties rested with the Confederates, and he had nefarious plans for the president. “At first, the well-known actor hoped to kidnap Lincoln, bring him to Richmond and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war. However, the fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865, and the surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee a few days later prompted him to consider even more drastic action.”1 There were several others on his hate list including Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William Seward, and Gen. Grant. The only thing to do now was to kill them.
Around 10:00 p.m., Booth walked confidently to the president’s box. John Parker, the president’s body guard had grown bored with the play and had left to get a beer.2 Booth calmly walked into the president’s box and promptly shot him in the head. Rathbone tried to detain Booth, but Booth had a knife and cut Rathbone’s arm. Most of the blood that was shed from that night was determined to belong to Rathbone. Though the president bled very little, by the next morning, he would be dead.
Now, back to our opening paragraph. Would things have been different if Grant had been at the theater instead of Major Rathbone? What if Parker had stayed in the president’s box, braving the boredom – would things have been different? And history tells us that there were planned attempts on Johnson and Seward’s lives that night. A variety of events and decisions caused the outcome to be different for Grant, Johnson, and Seward than it was for President Abraham Lincoln.
These are questions for which we will never have the answers.
“Every choice we make sends ripples through our lives and affects not only us but also those around us… Our decisions can influence our family, friends, and community in ways we may not realize. It is a reminder for us to weigh our choices carefully and to consider how they might impact others.”3
How many times have we read stories where someone declares, “I was supposed to be on that plane, in that car, or in that building.” Chance? Fate? Destiny? Luck? These are the answers given by the world. Instead, I choose to believe in the sovereign hand of God guiding and directing our lives.
We could drive ourselves mad debating whether we should have or shouldn’t have in life. The debate would throw us into a paralysis which would be debilitating. Instead, we have to listen and rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit.
When it was time for the Christ child and His family to leave Egypt, the Lord provided the leading. Matthew 2:19-23 says, “But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, (20) Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. (21) And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. (22) But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: (23) And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Can we trust the Lord to do that for us today? Let your directions in life be determined by the truth of Psalms 32:8. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”
1https://www.history.com/articles/the-other-targets-of-booths-murder-conspiracy
2https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-14/john-wilkes-booth-shoots-abraham-lincoln
3https://biblestudyforyou.com/bible-verses-about-consequences-of-choices/
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