Storms

Last night I was working in the yard while my son was playing. I heard a little thunder in the distance and looked up at the sky (I was holding a long metal pole). The sky above me was clear. I looked in the direction from which our weather usually comes; all clear there as well. But as I glanced all around, I noticed dark storm clouds nearly everywhere else in the sky. Now, aside from holding a long metal pole, I was also interested because we drastically need rain. The thunder increased, the wind picked up, but the sky really didn't change all that much. I remarked to my son that it felt like it was going to rain, and it sounded like it was going to rain, but it didn't look like it was going to rain. Sure enough, the storm passed us by without a drop of rain.

This morning as I was having some time with God and His Word, I was reading in the book of Mark chapter 6. I had heard this story since I was a child, maybe you have too. The disciples were on a boat at night, Jesus was on the shore. A storm came up, and Jesus could see them being battered, for the wind was against them.
This time as I was reading I noticed something in this story that I had not noticed before. This happens quite often by the way, as the Word is living as the Holy Spirit speaks to us through It. Anyway, the Bible says Jesus began walking toward them on the water and wanted to pass by them. Now I'm not sure why Jesus wanted to pass by them, but as our Pastor said Sunday, the Bible is not provided to answer all our questions, but to be the Truth. However, the disciples saw Jesus and cried out in fear, for they thought they were seeing a ghost. Then Jesus spoke: "Have courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

How often when storms blow up in our lives, do we just let Jesus pass by, instead of crying out to Him. If we were to cry out, he would say: "Have courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." Jesus is always there for us, even and especially in the middle of the storms. He sees us, and he wants us to cry out to Him.

After my quiet time, I went back inside and learned of friends of ours who are weathering a storm in the media. He's the high school principal in our town, and is catching some flack because a few people couldn't obey some simple rules at graduation and were arrested. This man took an individual interest in my kid's education and put in extra time and effort to get my son the classes he needed for the best education possible. That was a year or so ago, and since then almost every parent I talk to who has a student there has a similar story about how Mr. Christopher spent extra time and effort for the best interest of their individual child. We need more people in education like him. For him and his family, I would just say, (and I know they already know this) look to Jesus in the storm.