One of my earliest memories is of a hurricane (typhoon) barreling down on the small island we were living on in the South Pacific. The island, Kwajalein, amid the Marshalls, was only three miles long and half a mile wide. Its highest point was only about 10 feet above sea level. When the sea rose, the island would almost disappear.
I remember the sound of the rain pummeling our army-issue metal trailer and of the wind howling a deafening barrage. I remember purple lightening flashing across the sky and water seeping in under the door. I was scared, but not too scared. I didn’t know enough to be really scared. This was my first hurricane. This was long before satellite technology could be communicated to the average person. We didn’t really have telephone service on the island to and from the outside world. We had Armed-Forces radio from which I’m sure my parents got their news, but we still didn’t know much. We truly had to just wait it out and see.
No, I wasn’t too scared; I’m sure my parents were. I’m sure they prayed, but we children had to depend on their faith. We didn’t know to be afraid…and we didn’t know yet what it was to have our own faith.
The next day the sun came out, and we could see the havoc the storm had wreaked: palm trees sheared in half by flying debris, palm branches strewn all about, and many a broken window. But we were okay.
I’ve weathered many a hurricane (typhoons, cyclones, & nor’easters) and even one earthquake since then. I’ve been lucky. Some people have endured far worse devastation than I have. Some people have not made it through such disasters. Relatively few of us know the perils we are facing even now or may yet encounter.
Jesus told us that we ought to have faith like that of a child. Children don’t know much and have to rely on the knowing and the faith of those around them. Children can lean on the faith and trust of the parents and other caring family members. The wellbeing of the child depends on the trustworthiness of the parent and the quality of faith the parent holds.
In the grand scheme of things, we are like children, in terms of what we know about what life will bring us. Our faith is unlearned, untutored, untested, when it comes to the barrage of trials we have yet to face. As I write this blog, hurricane Dorian is stalled off the coast of Florida. Floridians have no idea what this storm will do. Even with all the technology we have, there is still a great mystery. There has been a general call to prudence, “Prepare yourself; get ready; get out of harm’s way.” As a people of faith, we also say in such times, “Turn to God. Have faith. God will deliver.” Do both the practical and the esoteric: prepare and pray.
Sometimes people pray, and they are delivered from dire circumstances, seemingly miraculously. Sometimes people pray and don’t make it through the storm. It’s a disconcerting mystery. I am reminded of this quandary of faith addressed by the writer Ecclesiastes:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance…
what God has done, God has done,
so that all should stand in awe before him. (Eccles. 3:1-4, 14b)
What matters most, in the oh-so-difficult times, is not the amount of our faith, but the faithfulness of God. As all of us were born into this life, we each will experience the moment of death. God may deliver us from many storms throughout life, and God will ultimately deliver us, notfrom death, but through death into life. What matters is our leaning on God’s faithfulness in the midst of the storm, trusting that “whether in life or death, we belong to God.”
We are all children, weathering the storms of life. We must rely on a faithfulness of our heavenly parent who has enough faithfulness for us, a faithfulness that surrounds us, holds us, companions us, and lifts us up. This we know in Jesus, who both calmed the world’s storms and himself experienced the ravages of the world’s stormy barrage. And in the midst of both God delivered.
