The Storm

I went camping this weekend and had no access to the Internet. I wrote the gist of the following post in the campground bathroom. The place we stayed was super windy so the storm that Jesus calmed took on new meaning there.

Matthew 8:23-27

Fog. Rain. Hail. Typhoons. Tornadoes. Hurricanes. There's something helpless in us when exposed to weather. I've seen the outer layer of a tin roof blown off by strong winds from a typhoon. I've seen tree after tree knocked down--flattened by the force of a tornado. There's something helpless in us when exposed to the elements.

We can be so painfully powerless that the story of Christ calming the storm takes on a certain sweetness after being exposed to potentially lethal weather.

The first scene of the story finds Jesus asleep in the boat while his disciples are trying to row across the lake. I imagine flashes of lightening expose his peaceful slumbering face while those same flashes reveal the anxiety ridden faces of his disciples.

The storm rages and worsens and the disciples anxiety turns to pure fear--the boat will be swamped. They will die. They wake Jesus, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown" (Matthew 8:25). Jesus replies, "You of little faith why are you so afraid?" (Matthew 8:26). Then he gets up and rebukes the wind and "it was completely calm" (Matthew 8:26).

I like that Jesus rebukes the wind. He can tell storms to quiet down and those storms will listen!

Jesus is stronger than the waves, stronger than the wind, stronger than storms. He finds us in our most powerless moment. He finds us where we are most helpless and matches our helplessness to his might storm calming power.