Anchored In Hope 11/29/25

In February 2011, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand. Among the thousands of terrified residents was a young mother named Sarah Watkins. That morning, she had just dropped her two small boys off at daycare inside the CTV building. At 12:51 p.m., the ground convulsed. Within seconds, the six-story building collapsed into a burning heap of twisted steel and concrete. One hundred and fifteen people died in that building, including every daycare worker and every child on the upper floors. When Sarah arrived at the site, emergency workers told her there was no chance anyone on the upper levels had survived. For the next eight hours, she stood in the rain, clutching a tiny photo of her boys, screaming their names into the rubble. Rescuers begged her to leave. She refused. “They’re my children,” she said. “God promised me they were mine to protect. I’m not leaving until I know.” At 8:30 that night, eight hours after the collapse, a rescuer heard a faint cry. They cut through concrete and rebar and pulled out a single daycare worker, barely alive. She whispered two words: “The babies… basement.” A separate stairwell had held. Every single child on the lower level had survived, shielded by a pocket of air. Sarah’s boys were carried out covered in dust but alive. She fell to her knees in the mud and sobbed, “He kept His promise.” That is the kind of hope the writer of Hebrews wants us to feel: hope that does not flinch when the ground shakes, because it is anchored in a God who cannot lie and will not fail. Today, in Hebrews 6:13-20, we will see three life-changing truths: God is the Promise Keeper. We are His Image Bearers, and Jesus is the Anchor of our souls.