Why Was I So Afraid?

     "A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?'

    "He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

    "He said to His disciples, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?'

    "They were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!'" Mark 4: 37-41

    Who is this, indeed, that can bring a sense of peace in the midst of an intense storm, such as battered our area last Thursday? 

    Ordinarily, I love a rousing thunderstorm, when God unleashes His power in a physical way. Even so, when the brooding skies and the urgency of the eighty-plus miles per hour winds demonstrated His force in such a frightening way, I found myself wandering wide-eyed from window to window to check our trees.

    The maple whirled like a dervish, sending our neighbor's patio umbrella somewhere. The gnarled oak defied its age, surprisingly, by standing its ground but it was our eighty-foot tall tulip tree that furiously flung logs in a spitting tempest, hurling them straight into our neighbor's home. Hearing the snaps and cracks, my powerlessness was getting the best of me until the Holy Spirit, aroused in strength, force-fed me the very verses I craved:

    "'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,' says the Lord who has compassion on you." (Isaiah 54:10)

    "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with its surging." (Psalm 46: 1-3)

    Like the Sea of Galilee, my heart became completely calm as He rebuked the waves of anxiety that threatened to engulf me. Why was I so afraid?

    After the rains, we all crawled from our homes, a bit bewildered, to survey our new landscape. As we met neighbors we had not previously known, it was this sight that brought mirth to potential misery: a homeless squirrel perched at the peak of my neighbor's garage beneath a slice of the moon, looked down upon the fallen foliage as if to ask, "What just happened?" It brought a knowing smile to us all as we shared in his plight.

    Our neighbor, who is also a sister in Christ, put everything into perspective the following day. Though her home had received the brunt of the damage, after viewing the overall condition of others in our area, she looked at me and declared with conviction, "We are blessed." I couldn't agree more.

"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and He guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind." Psalm 107: 28-31