Is Jesus In Your Boat?
As parents, when our children are very small, we keep a constant, watchful eye on them. As
they grow, so does our confidence that they can play, or be otherwise engaged, for longer
periods of time without our checking on them. We don't watch our kindergartners as we would
our newborns, nor our teens as our kindergartners. We learn (most of us, anyway) that we can
trust our children to 'behave' when we're not present, and they learn to trust us to be there
when they need us. As the years accumulate, our children mature into young adults that are
not 'clingy' or 'needy' as toddlers or infants would be. They learn to have a healthy respect for
the dependence and independence they have in their lives.
When my children were babies, my older
daughter developed her independence early
on. Then my younger daughter came along a
short time later; she cried constantly. She
was four years old before she slept through
the night, whereas the older had began
sleeping through the night at three weeks.
She would allow no one to hold her but me;
not even her father could hold her more
than a few minutes before she would start
to cry for me. I'll never know what the
problem was but, thankfully, by the time she was eighteen months old, she had 'grown out of
it.' But in her early weeks and months, there was definitely a level of insecurity that, to me,
miraculously worked itself out.
That whole scenario makes me look at the story of Jesus calming the storm a little closer. Most
mothers, and people in general, would agree that there is nothing more beautiful, or peaceful,
than a sleeping baby. I can't help but have the same feeling toward Jesus asleep in the boat,
crossing the rough waters during the storm. For Jesus, the tossing water acted as a rocking
cradle, while the wind howled a lullaby. Here is the man that had performed miracle after
miracle, had throngs of people approach Him for teaching and healing, and besides all that, He
spent a lot of nights alone in prayer with His Father. His body was tired-He needed the rest.
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photo courtesy of kakisky via http://mrg.bz/Tjm9is