Storms

November 5, 2017

William Barclay was a Scottish pastor, scholar, and professor who is best known for his New Testament commentary, the Daily Study Bible. The night before his daughter was to be married, she and her fiancee took a rowboat out on the loch for some quiet time following the wedding rehearsal. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but the boat overturned and they both drowned. Instead of a wedding, Dr. Barclay had to officiate at a funeral. Later, as he was teaching and writing his commentary, he came to the story of Jesus calming the storm. One of his students asked if he really believed that at the command of Jesus the storm stilled. “I cannot prove that Jesus calmed the storm on that sea,” he replied. “But I know that he calmed the storm in my heart.”

It’s an unusual November 5th; instead of snow, it’s raining with flashes of lightning and peals of thunder echoing through the hills. The creek behind our house is raging, swollen almost to the banks. It’s been a stormy day. 

Storms can be a frightful thing. Unrelenting rain soaks the earth causing mudslides, and rivers overflow their banks causing flooding with loss of property and life. If you’ve ever been caught in a flood, you develop an instant appreciation for the power of the water. Years ago, my sons and I were caught in a snowstorm while crossing a lake in Canada. In a canoe. The wind whipped the waves into whitecaps that washed over the gunwales, threatening to swamp or overturn us. In that cold water, we all would have perished. 

And yet, the same God who in Jesus calmed the storm is the one who caused it. In Psalm 18, we read,

“The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.

He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—the dark rain clouds of the sky.

Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them.

God is not always the God of peace and calm. Sometimes he stirs things up. I don’t always like it when he does, but I’ve learned that in the storm, I am not in control. It’s all I can do to stay afloat. Storms force me to lean hard on God. The time will come when Jesus calms the storm, but until then, sometimes the storm is God’s gift for which I am still learning to give thanks.