Daily Word of Grace # 72 (June 24, 2020)
In his riveting 1997 book The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger recounts the tragic story of the Andrea Gail a commercial fishing vessel lost during “the perfect storm” in the North Atlantic during the fall of 1991. Near the end of the book he observes, “Anyone who has been through a severe storm at sea has, to one degree of another, almost died, and that fact will continue to alter them long after the winds have stopped blowing and the waves have died down. Like a war or a great fire, the effects of a storm go rippling outward through webs of people for years, even generations. It breaches lives like coastlines and nothing is ever again the same” (219-220). You can probably recount some kind of “severe storm” you have endured in your life (or are enduring right now). The good news of the gospel is that Jesus is with you even in the most severe storms. When the disciples were caught in a severe storm in the middle of the night Jesus walked on the water all the way to them and after saving Peter, personally “got into the boat” and when he did so, “the wind ceased” (Matthew 14:22-32). On Good Friday Jesus endured the “perfect storm” of his passion and death, and did not almost die, actually did die. And the Risen Jesus still bears the scars of that perfect storm, because following a severe storm or perfect storm indeed “nothing is ever again the same.” And because of Jesus’ death for you, in an eternally positive way, nothing will ever again be the same for you, for the Lord will bring you safely through every perfect storm in your life, and your death, until you find yourself in God’s presence in heaven, “the wind ceased” forever.
Love and Prayers,
Dave