Even the wind and waves obey him
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Welcome to Thought for the Day. For you listeners, today is Friday 31st Jan, but if you can think back exactly a week to last Friday, that’s now for me. I’m recording this little thought for the day as right now Storm Eowyn batters the British Isles on Friday morning 24th January.
And as I look
out of the window, it’s blowing a hooley. I had to ring my neighbour to tell him
his garden furniture was ripped, and the headlines on the BBC read “Danger to
life warnings as ‘once in a generation’ Storm Eowyn batters UK and Ireland”,
and a gust of 114mph has
just been recorded in Ireland.
Nobody can
stop the wind. Railways have been closed, planes have been rerouted, solid walls
have been blown down, less solid structures and some roof tiles don’t have a
chance. We’re so used to thinking that we can control events, our weekend plans,
our TV choices, our home décor, but the wind reminds us how limited we are, and
how sometimes we need to hunker down and simply wait for it to blow over.
James, Peter,
John and their mates had seen some pretty ferocious winds, but on this day it
was off the scale. Hardened fisherman, who knew the waters like the back of
their hands, were worried they were going to drown.
And on board
their little fishing boat was a carpenter. He was asleep, can you believe it,
while all of this was going on. But they had got to know that there was
something different about the carpenter, so they woke him, “don’t you care if
we drown”?
He stood up
and simply ordered the wind and the waves “Quiet, be still”. Now normally when
the wind dies down on a lake, it’s a good few hours before the waves catch up,
but this time in an instant things were like a mill pond.
The fishermen
had never seen anything like it. Here was the first man on earth who could
control the wind and the waves. They now had something more terrifying to come
to terms with, a man who can control the weather. Could he be the Creator stepping
into the creation? God’s promised King of Kings? They turned to each other (you
can read about it in Mark chapter 4) and said “Who is this, even the wind and
waves obey him?”
Thanks for
listening.
Charlie Newcombe 24JAN25