One sunny and calm afternoon, my father rowed my sister and her friend over to the Boulder Bank in Nelson, New Zealand, to look at
the sea birds nesting among the stones. It was a distance of over one and a half kilometres, ‘as the crow flies’.
All went well until they started back. Then, almost out of nowhere, a storm hit them, whipping up white-capped waves on the normally
calm water.
Rowing a near flat-bottomed boat in those conditions required immense skill and strength, and the originally planned route of straight
back to the shore had to be quickly amended.
The vicious side wind meant that my father had to row at almost right angles to the shore, as the bow had to be kept head-on into the
waves. Making progress back to the beach was a long, marathon effort, and an exhausted oarsman and two very frightened girls
finally got helped ashore by the many anxious friends waiting there.
When I asked my sister afterwards how she had felt, she admitted that when the progress was hard to see, fog hid the shoreline, and
waves were breaking over them, there were huge doubts about whether they would make it back safely.
That incidence came to mind the other day when reading of another furious storm where Jesus was asleep in a tossing boat while his
disciples were petrified. When they finally woke him, they angrily demanded, “Don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38)
The disciples soon discovered that God was more tender and caring than they had ever conceived. Of course He cared what
happened to them. Wasn’t He there in the boat, experiencing the same storm?
Notice that as soon as they asked for His help, as soon as they trusted in the fact that He was able to meet their need, then He
calmed the storm.
However long it takes, if we have asked Him to, God is working on our rescue. Don’t worry if you can’t see anything happening, just
remember that, “All things work together for good to those who love God.” (Rom. 8:28)
You won’t become braver about your miserable situation just by trying to smile about it, but it will help if you concentrate more on what
God is like and learn to rely on the fact that He’s with you, even if you don’t particularly feel He is.
E-mail:Cynthis Rowse
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