Jesus Calms the Storm

This is Day 20 of my 40 day Lenten Blog.

"Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?' They were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey him!'"

Last night my seven year old son Stafford slipped and fell on the wet floor in the bathroom after getting out of the shower. He split his chin on the tile. Blood was everywhere, he was screaming, his brothers were screaming, and we were all naked as the day we were born because everyone had been taking a shower. Thankfully the cut could have been worse, but after FaceTiming with an ER doctor friend we decided Stafford needed stitches. So in the middle of the Coronavirus scare, I took my little boy to the Emergency Room (after getting dressed of course). We were there all night and didn't get to bed until super late. My wife Elena was left home with our other two boys who were both panicking that their brother and daddy were going to get Coronavirus and die. The post Elena wrote on Facebook about what she and the boys were thinking was so good that I decided to just post it here instead of trying to write my own.

So, tonight we had a little scare. Thankfully, Stafford is fine. He slipped though and got a cut that required stitches. He and Chris have been at the ER for a while now and are finally headed home.

Dixon was very upset and scared, as was Maxwell. They were scared for their brother, and scared for the ER visit (ugh @ this coronavirus!).

Thankfully, Maxwell was too tired to fight off sleep, so he passed out pretty quickly. Dixon, on the other hand, needed some time to decompress from the crazy that had gone on with the fall, the blood, the tears, etc. I finally got him in the bed with me and we turned to Facebook Watch. First thing on my list was a replay of a “live” concert my favorite artist, Michael W. Smith, had done today at 5 pm from his home studio. Dixon is also a big fan. Michael didn’t play whole songs, just snippets, but it was just what the doctor ordered. For 35 minutes we watched, sang along, and just relaxed. It was perfect.

Then, Dixon turned to me and said, “I kind of want to go back to school. Then I’ll know things are ok again and back to normal.”

So, this long diatribe was just a way for me to remind you-our kids are looking to us to be strong, to be the voice of reason, to be the lighthouse shining the light into the dark, stormy, foggy night. It’s up to us to point them to our Heavenly Father who is all these things to us and more.

The above painting The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt (aka Jesus Calms the Storm Mark 4: 35-41), says it all.

R.C. VanLandingham is the author of the Christian fantasy novel Peter Puckett & The Amulet of Eternity. He lives in Florida with his beautiful wife and three wonderful boys.