On the Way to Wonder

Surviving storms might be a big topic on our hearts tonight as we watch the evening news.  12,000 plus men, women and children died in the earthquake in Syria/Iraq this week.  Workers are digging through the rubble to find more bodies.  Families have been destroyed and rearranged.  Our hearts cry out for the grieving, the suffering, the exhausted, and the lost.

         Some might ask why God allowed such a catastrophe.  It does not appear that God chose to stop the havoc nature can explode into our lives.  Hurricane Ian struck Florida and lives were impacted.  Coved claimed on million lives in the last two years.  We can name some of the factors like building codes, ignoring masking, and refusing to evacuate but the results of the catastrophe still changes our lives.  Evil does not care who gets hurt.  It happens to all of us at one time or another.

         I find comfort in the passage knowing that Jesus is asleep in the boat with the disciples.  God is with them.  Jesus stands and calms the storm.  He had the power to prevent it and to stop it.  But he does not always choose to do what we think ought to be done but that does not mean he has turned his back and is absent or up in the skies watching.  He is in the boat with his disciples.  He asks a question that resonates with me as I struggle with fear, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?”

^“23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. ²⁴ A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. ²⁵ And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ ²⁶ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. ²⁷ They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’  (Matthew 8:23-27)”

         I cannot explain undeserved evil anymore than Job could when his world collapsed around him in the Old Testament.  But I do know that our lives are in God’s hands, he is present, and he cares.  So let us ponder the storm that is causing us anxiety today.  Let us do an acrostic on the word “care.”  C is for _______, A is for ________, R is for _______, and E is for ______.

 “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”

(1 Peter 5:7)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2023 at 6:58 am and is filed under Spiritual Vitamins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.