As I drive north from our home, there comes a moment when I can feel the lake fast approaching.
The car begins to climb higher and the air begins to feel lighter. I know I’m getting closer by the minute, but I can’t see it yet. If I’m patient, and I’m not always patient for I’m afraid that I’ll miss that first peek of the lake and I’m so anticipating that first peek, I’ll see a small patch of blue fragmented by a dotting of green maples. By the next turn of the road, I’ll see a bit more of the lake and a little less green.
As soon as my eyes behold the great expanse of blue, green and gray surrounded by multi hues of green, the tension in my neck eases. Immediately, I feel the city-stress ebb from my body. I sing-a-long louder with the radio and my lips begin to curve into a smile.
Nature has this effect on me and I expect you as well. I find it particularly lovely when this lake is all churned up. Once, when I was at a friend’s home on this same lake during a storm, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It kept changing shape and I never knew blue came in so many shades.
I marvelled at the lake, even contemplated telling my hubby we were buying a home on this lake just so I could enjoy the storms! But one thing I know for sure, I wouldn’t enjoy being on the lake in a storm. I’d get sea sick or is it lake sick in this case?
That’s why the story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples gets me. It hits me between the eyes. I had to tell it in Children and Worship last week and I had a difficult time not giving the little ones too much information.
Do you remember the story in Mark 4:35-41? Jesus spends the day teaching by the Sea of Galilee. The crowds gather to hear Him because His ways are so different than their own. They’ve even heard that there’s healing in His robes!
As the day continues, the crowds swell. So many have come that the disciples, Jesus’ trusty band of not so quick witted friends, have lost all semblance of crowd control. The masses push against one another and they fear someone will be crushed. No one will take the lead and where’s a good woman to tell everyone what to do when you need her?
No one takes control that is until Jesus is threatened. He steps into the water and preaches with wet toes. The crowds push closer still until Jesus is in up to His waist in water. Something must be done. Our disciples are fishermen after all, so they suggest He get into a boat. He can be rowed out into the lake, close enough for everyone to see and hear but not so close that everyone can touch Him.
Their plan works well and by nightfall, Jesus suggests that the disciples join Him in the boat and take a leisurely cruise to the other side. They will arrive in the morning and have a roasted fish breakfast on the beach.
I’m okay up to this point in the story. The scene is tranquil, pastoral and refreshing. So much so that Jesus takes a nap. No sooner are they out in the middle of the lake then:
“…a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat,
so that the boat was already filling.”
I’d be outta of there! I’d be holding onto my life jacket for all I’m worth and I can swim…well! Or else, I’d be hiding somewhere, anywhere doing what I do best in airplane turbulence:
- wondering how I let my hubby talk me into yet another flight (I hate turbulence)
- wishing I was home safe with my kids
- and praying fervently
But what do you do in the middle of the lake? There’s no where to go. Then the disciples realize one of their party is missing. Where is Jesus? He’s done this before. Gone missing. From His parents. Maybe there’s something in this? He’s not where we think He should be but always exactly where He needs to be. They find Him in an unexpected spot:
“…He was in the stern, ASLEEP on the cushion.”
Jesus knows Who controls the waves and the wind. The Prince of Peace is at perfect peace, not because He is out of the storm but because He knows Who is with Him in the storm, who made the wind and seas and who holds the whole world in His hands!
Peace isn’t about being rescued from the storms of life.
It is about being calm in the midst of the storms
because we know Who is in the boat of life with us.
God promises to never leave us, to never forsake us. He promises His unconditional love toward us. Love that reached out for us before we reached out for Him!
“And they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher,
do you not care that we are perishing?
And He awoke and rebuked the wind and said
to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm.
He said to them,
“Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith?
And they were filled with great fear and said to one another,
“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
When life’s waves come crashing over my boat, waves of worry, job loss, loneliness, illness, I want to be found asleep on a cushion. God promises to take my little mustard seed sized faith and give me His peace, peace that passes all understanding.
