"It's getting late . . . ."
"You should go home and take care of your family . . . ."
"Jesus is tired and needs to rest . . . ."
The friends of Jesus, also known as his disciples, had spread themselves out among the huge group of people who had gathered throughout the day to listen to Jesus tell stories and teach about the Kingdom of God. Just as some people were finally leaving, others would come, take their place in the crowd. It seemed that everyone wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. The disciples had quite a difficult task, trying to convince everyone that it was time to go home!
"Hey, Peter! Have you seen Jesus?" John called out as the last person was walking away.
"I think He already went to the boat," Peter yelled back.
Sure enough, when the disciples got to the little boat, they found that Jesus was already there, waiting for them.
"Will you fellows please take me to the other side of the lake?" Jesus asked politely. The disciples were eager to please Jesus. They raised the sails, lifted the anchor, and were soon sailing toward the middle of the lake.
Suddenly, without warning, the wind started howling, whipping the large sails about as if they were feathers. The waves rose higher and higher, sloshing over the sides of the boat. The boat, heaving heavily from side to side, was hopelessly uncontrollable. It was all they could do to hold on.
James glanced around to see if everyone was still on the boat, hoping no one had fallen overboard. "WHERE IS JESUS?" he yelled above the roar of the wind.
Peter yelled back, "HE'S HERE IN THE BACK OF THE BOAT! CAN YOU BELIEVE HE IS SLEEPING THROUGH ALL OF THIS?"
The disciples were getting more and more fearful because of the storm. Water was quickly filling the vessel, and there was nothing they could do about it. There was no doubt in their minds that they were all going to die.
One of the disciples started shaking Jesus trying to awaken him, screaming loudly to be heard. "JESUS . . . JESUS! GET UP! HOW CAN YOU SLEEP THROUGH THIS STORM? DON'T YOU CARE IF WE ALL DIE? PLEASE GET UP AND HELP US!"
Jesus calmly and peacefully got up from his nap. He stood up in the boat, which was being tossed around uncontrollably, and spoke to the wind . . . and then He spoke to the lake simply saying, "Peace, be still!"
At that very instant:
The wind stopped howling . . .
The waves stopped rolling . . .
The boat stopped tossing . . .
All was calm, still, and peaceful out on the lake.
The disciples were still trembling with fear and still holding on for dear life. They hadn't even realized the storm had stopped. Jesus turned to them and said gently, "Why are you so fearful? How could you spend so much time with Me and yet have so little faith that I would take care of you?"
The disciples, realizing that the storm was over, loosened their grip just a bit and timidly stood up. They looked at one another in amazement. "Can you believe what just happened?" one of them asked.
"What kind of man is this?" another one wondered.
"Even the wind and the waves obey him!" a third one exclaimed.
"It was absolutely incredible!" they all agreed.
After all their wonder and amazement subsided just a bit, they got busy with the hard tasks of bailing the water out of their boat and repairing the sails so they could continue the rest of the way across the lake where, unknown to them, another great miracle was waiting to take place.
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