One of my favorite biblical stories is one where Jesus and the disciples cross from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other. While Jesus dozes at the back of the boat, a storm blows in. Crashing waves flood the vessel. Fearing for their lives against the whirlwind, the disciples wake Jesus with terse, frantic cries: “Do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38).
Before answering the disciples, Jesus rebukes the wind and tells the sea to shut up. His actions say to his followers, then and now, no matter what storms we face: “Yes, of course I care! I’m right here in the boat with you, aren’t I?”
This message is an excerpt from “Closer to God” by Audrey West in the July/August 2018 issue of Gather magazine. Today we remember John Christian Frederick Heyer, who died in 1873; Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, who died in 1719; and Ludwig Nommensen, who died in 1918; missionaries.
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