And they came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then He arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. Luke 8:24
The old men who gathered around the stove at the country store on a cold afternoon were yarning about their days working in the lumber woods. Several of them had fascinating stories of times when they escaped from almost certain injury or death by the narrowest of margins. One of the storytellers was Dell, who told of working in a sawmill with a crew that was rushing to finish the job and move to another location. At one point, a piece of lumber was inadvertently left in a location where it began moving toward the big saw. By the time Dell noticed it, it was almost to the saw, and Dell knew instantly that the saw would catch it and fling it with great force at another man who was just ahead of the carriage, almost certainly killing the man. But it was too late to do anything, and Dell said the thought that went through his mind was ‘Goodbye’! At that very moment, the saw jammed and stopped, something that had never happened before. The piece of lumber bumped harmlessly into the saw. What looked like certain death turned out to be a narrow escape. But it could have been otherwise, unlike the peril that the disciples encountered during the storm on the lake.
The disciples were certain that the boat was about to be swamped. In such a wild sea, none of them would be likely to survive. But instead of being cast helplessly into the raging tempest, the disciples soon found themselves sailing on a calm lake. What they thought to be a great peril turned out to be a great lesson in faith. As we look back on that scene, we know that the boat could not have swamped, that neither the Lord Jesus nor His disciples would come to any harm. He had come into the world to complete His father’s mission, and that meant dying on a Roman cross, not drowning in a Judaean lake. The purposes of God always supercede anything that we might expect to happen in this world.
Most of us have not been about to be shipwrecked at sea. But we have all faced circumstances that filled us with fear and uncertainty. We did not know how things would turn out and not knowing added to our fears. But there is One Who does know, One who is never caught by surprise, One who is never unprepared. Just as the disciples as they were obeying their Lord were perfectly safe despite the apparent peril, so we are perfectly safe as we move in obedience to Him. Nothing can happen to us that is not for His purposes and according to His plans. We should let that reassurance give us peace when we run into trouble or danger.
The worst that this world can throw at us is no match for the presence of the Lord Jesus. As we used to sing with the children, ‘With Christ in the vessel, we can smile at the storm, as we go sailing home’. -Jim MacIntosh