In 1633, Rembrandt Van Rijn painted a historical piece of art, the Storm on the sea of Galilee. It depicts the biblical event of Jesus calming the storm on the sea of Galilee as illustrated in Mark 4:35-39. The painting is a near perfect representation of life’s chaos and our response to it.
If you look at the painting, you can see that to the top left are the fixers. Two individuals who are trying to fix the ropes on the boat. They can be characterized as trying to fix the situation.
Let's look at our next individual, the man at the center of the boat. This man thinks he’s got control of the situation. You can see him trying to control the midship—the part of the boat that keeps the boat balanced and stable. But obviously what he’s trying to do isn't working.
To the far right of the boat appears to be Jesus surrounded by other individuals who have their eyes fixated on Him. It's a great imagery of Hebrews 12:2—fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
Then there are the one-off individuals. One of them we can clearly see hanging by a rope. Another who is vomiting on the side of boat. Every one of these individuals represents our response to life’s storm. And if there is anything we know about living in this imperfect world, it's that life’s storm will surely come. In the infamous words of Mike Tyson:
“everyone’s got a plan until they get hit in the mouth.”
Last year life hit me in the mouth twice. I lost both my parents within six months. When something like that happens it's hard not to lift your chin, pump your fist and ask God why. Contrary to Rembrandt’s painting, the bible says that Jesus was asleep on a cushion when the storm came. Unfortunately, this is one of the many reasons why people reject God. He seems inactive, intangible and invisible during the storm. Its why even the prominent theologian, C.S Lewis asked: "why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in times of trouble?” (C.S Lewis, A Grief Observed).
In his sermon, The Beauty of Jesus, I love what pastor Jeremy Fisher says, “It's the not the storm that woke Jesus from his sleep, it was the cry of his people.” Now, it's been about two years since our youngest daughter was an infant, but I specifically recall her cries in the middle of the night. I would wake up startled and I would run into her room to make sure she was ok. As you can tell I didn’t do well with sleep training. But it was the cry of my child that always got me out of bed. Amid the storm that's what the disciples did. They cried out to Jesus: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And what did He do? He got up, rebuked the storm and said to the sea, “Hush be still” and the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
This biblical event is a great example for us when we come face to face with the storm. As much as we can try to fix the situation or try to control it, our response should be to cry out to our Lord and savior. Remember Jesus’s final words on the cross:
“My God, my God why have you forsaken me.” (Matthew 27:46).
At Jesus’s weakest moment of life, “He offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety” (Hebrews 5:7). Let us emulate that same response during our darkest seasons. Cry out to the father for it’s His children’s cry that awakens Him.
There is something to be said about being in the eye of a storm. The storm is where we cultivate faith. The storm is where our faith is tested. Its where the test becomes the testimony, and mess becomes the message. The storm is where God refines us through afflictions, trials and tribulations so that are faith becomes “more precious than gold” (1 Peter 1:7). Listen to Jesus’s words after calming the storm:
“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Could it be that Jesus brought the disciples to the storm to strengthen their faith, in the
hopes that if they should ever (which they will) find themselves in another storm, they would have complete faith in Him. Recollection is everything. If I can recall that God got me through a storm in the past, then I can have the faith to trust that He will get me through the storm in the future.
For those of us who are in Christ Jesus, we are going to find ourselves in many storms. It's inevitable. Take Jesus’s word for it:
“In this world you will have trouble but take heart, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).
God doesn’t promise to save us from the storm, but He promises to be with us in the storm. As my favorite artist KB would say, “the boat can’t be sunk when Jesus is sleepin’ on it.” Jesus is with us in the difficulties, the suffering, the pain, and the loss. That is His promise to us.
It was only after I lost my parents that I began to see God’s faithfulness through it all. Just three months before my mom passed, she was reunited with my father after 25 years of being separated. Honestly, I never thought I would see that reunion happen. It was a divine appointment. Our heavenly father was orchestrating something we could not see. God tends to work that way sometimes. We usually don’t see nor understand what He is doing until after the fact. He’s purposeful that way. As I look back at the way God weaved everything together, I am thankful for that reunion, and I am also thankful that both my parents got to see my own family tree.
The storms we face should serve as a reminder that it won’t always be like this. It's always darkest before dawn or in other words, “weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). There is a hope we believers hold on to— a day with no more pain, and no more tears. A day that we will be with the risen Christ. He will look to us and reward us with the crown of righteousness and say, “well done, my good and faithful servant.” This is our hope and our chief’s end, to glorify God whether it be in the calm or in the storm.
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