Correcting for the Wind

I got to play at recess for just a little while yesterday.  I was throwing a red football with David; he’s one of our fourth graders.

David’s is a pretty good passer, and he can catch pretty well too.  But… it was pretty windy yesterday, and the ball we were throwing was one of those light nerf blow-up jobs.  We were passing the ball with the wind blowing across the path of our passes.

The problem was that if I directed my throw right at David, the wind would blow the ball off course about fifteen feet to the right every time.  David would have to make a scrambling catch, which, by the way, he did many times. 

So I began to correct my throws for the wind.  I pointed my pass ten or so feet to the left and the wind would blow the ball right into David’s hands.

This, of course, got me to thinkin!  Jesus got out in the wind with his students (disciples) a few times in the Bible.  One time the wind and the waves were so bad that Jesus’ students thought that they’d all be swept away.  Jesus was resting in the boat.  Yep, see the difference?  Disciples – worrying, while Jesus was at rest.

When His students woke Him up, they had been wondering why Jesus didn’t care whether or not they lived or died.  They asked Jesus about it.  He simply responded, “Oh you of little faith.”  Then He said to the wind and the waves, “Peace! Be still!”  He made a “correction for the wind” and it stopped blowing, and the sea became quiet.

Sometimes “wind”, in the form of life’s difficulties, illnesses and struggles, blows into our lives.  Jesus is the “correction for the wind.”  He doesn’t promise that there won’t be wind; He promises to walk into and through the wind with us!

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).”  When the wind of life starts blowing, it is time to go to Him.  It will be in our friendship with Him that we find rest; nothing else works.

Let’s pray about it, can we? Lord, Jesus, thank You for going to the cross for us not just because You purchased the forgiveness of our sins.  But thank You for making Yourself available to be always with us no matter what “wind” begins to blow.  In Jesus’ name with thanksgiving, Amen.

Proud of you,

Pastor Wilson