A Storm Hits a Wedding Ceremony
I went to this wedding once where the person who took charge of planning the wedding had a beautiful vision for it. It was going to happen outside and it was going to be done in a very particular way so as to make the setting spectacular. The only thing was, everything was geared for outdoors. The venue was an outdoor venue, so the wedding and reception depended on dry calm weather. And whenever the person who was planning this thing was asked what she would do if it rained, she simply said: It won’t rain.
Well guess what?
A storm came through, and it rained.
And the weather outside wasn’t the only storm happening that day. With no indoor venue or arrangements made whatsoever, the wedding planner just shut down. Panic and pandemonium ensued as the bride, the bride’s mother, and many others frantically attempted to put something together.
Then in stepped these two women who were friends of the bride’s mother. In a very gentle and gracious manner they just sort of, took over. They found a gym they could use at a Christian high school. They figured out how to arrange the outdoor tables and chairs to accommodate the guests, even though the gym was much smaller than expected. They found a place for the caterer to set up. They improvised with the decorations designed for the outdoor venue. They were amazing.
It wasn’t long after these two engaged the problem that the storm subsided and a calm came over the bride and the rest of the wedding party.
How Jesus Loved People
When the disciples took Jesus across the sea of Galilee and the storm came, there was panic and pandemonium. The disciples in the boat were freaking out–because of a storm–so Jesus calmed it.
How to Love Like Jesus
Jesus loved the disciples by calming their storm. You and I can’t command the wind and the waves, but there are other storms we can calm.
Just like Jesus, God has put you in a boat with a group of people. They’re the ones in your family, in your workplace, in your circle of friends. And just like the disciples in the boat, they’ll experience storms. And sometimes, like the two ladies at the wedding, you’ll have the power to calm those storms.
When someone you know is freaked out, maybe you’re just the right person to bring them peace. Maybe their storm is a computer that’s down, or a car that won’t start, or the end of a relationship, or the loss of a job.
You just might be uniquely qualified to calm the wind and the waves.
Jesus calmed the storm for the disciples.
When you see an opportunity to calm someone’s storm, calm it.
Jesus did.
You can too.
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. -Mark 4:37-39
[Image via Green Destiny – Creative Commons]
Reblogged this on VDC and commented:
IM GRATEFUL…………
Ah yes, the storms of life! I was blessed one birthday in 1991 with the Streams in the Desert devotional written by Missionary Mrs. Charles Cowman; it has helped me through many storms. Some of the pages remain tear-stained. I thought its contents on Mark 4:37 might add to your wonderful insight, Kurt, on the various storms we encounter, for I believe each one is stamped with His love:
And there arose a great storm (Mark 4:37)~
Some of the storms of life come suddenly: a great sorrow, a bitter disappointment, a crushing defeat. Some come slowly. They appear upon the ragged edges of the horizon no larger than a man’s hand, but, trouble that seems so insignificant spreads until it covers the sky and overwhelms us.
Yet it is in the storm that God equips us for service. When God wants an oak, He plants it on the moor where the storms will shake it and the rains will beat down upon it, and it is in the midnight battle with elements that the oak wins its rugged fiber and becomes the king of the forest.
When God wants to make a man He puts him into some storm. The history of mankind is always rough and rugged. No man is made until he has been out into the surge of the storm and found the sublime fulfillment of the prayer: “O God, take me, break me, make me.”
A Frenchman has painted a picture of universal genius. There stand orators, philosophers and martyrs, all who have achieved preeminence in any phase of life; the remarkable fact about the picture is this: Every man who is preeminent for his ability was first preeminent for suffering. In the foreground stands that figure of the man who was denied the promised land, Moses. Beside him is another, feeling his way—blind Homer. Milton is there, blind and heartbroken. Now comes the form of One who towers above them all. What is His characteristic? His face is marred more than any man’s. The artist might have written under that great picture, “The Storm.”
The beauties of nature come after the storm. The rugged beauty of the mountain is born in a storm, and the heroes of life are the storm-swept and battle-scarred.
You have been in the storms and swept by the blasts. Have they left you broken, weary, beaten in the valley, or have they lifted you to the sunlit summits of a richer, deeper, more abiding manhood and womanhood? Have they left you with more sympathy with the storm-swept and the battle-scarred?
This selection includes:
The wind that blows can never kill
The tree God plants;
It bloweth east, it bloweth west,
The tender leaves have little rest,
But any wind that blows is best.
The tree that God plants
Strikes deeper root, grows higher still,
Spreads greater boughs, for God’s good will
Meets all its wants.
There is no storm hath power to blast
The tree God knows;
No thunderbolt, nor beating rain,
Nor lightning flash, nor hurricane;
When they are spent, it doth remain,
The tree God knows,
Through every tempest standeth fast,
And from its first day to its last
Still fairer grows.
Great comment Irene. No storms = no growth. A great thing to remember when we’re under the weather, so to speak.
Thank you for sharing!
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What a great story Kurt, and a good reminder that we can make a difference wherever we are. Calming the storm may require much patience and effort, or it may be as simple as listening to someone pour out their heart.
Blessings to you Kurt, your words are ever insightful.
Greg
Thanks for your comment Greg, and for all you do at Believing God Today and Inspirational Christians for Today!
Stay awesome.