Seeing Past the Waves

“He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36

The story is told of the preacher who kept a painting in his study of a shipwreck. There were sailors in lifeboats reaching out their hands to people floating on debris from the broken sinking ship. A little boy looked at the painting and asked his daddy, “Are those in the lifeboats trying to save those people or are they just shaking hands?”

Life can be a challenge and there are days that we have the challenges and struggles and there are days it is our friends who struggle with life. As I think about reaching out to save someone or just shaking their hand, I find it can be a fine line between which is needed. Some days it can take a lot of hand shaking before someone that needs ‘saving’ will reach out and take advantage of that help and get into the boat.

The challenge for us is that too often we cling to our own piece of the world like that piece of drifting debris, as if that is all that exists and we don’t even see the helping hand being offered let alone the lifeboat behind that hand. And yet as I watched a wee clip on the BBC the other day about lifeboats I also noticed that the lifeboat came from somewhere even more secure than the lifeboat itself. It came from a place of hope, in hope it was sent to the sea, in hope that it would make the journey there and back, in hope that they would be in time to rescue those in need. The hope of those who go, the hope of those who send it out and the only hope of those about to drown.

And so it is in the storm of life. We cling to the debris and miss the helping hand and fail to see the lifeboat that can be a refuge and even more miss that the lifeboat can get us to a safe place of refuge above the storm.

Can you see the hand outstretched to help you? Can you see the lifeboat and imagine the place of safety that it can get you to? Or do you just see the debris you cling to? Can you see the way to safety and yet all you do is shake hands with the rescuer?

Having friends is great and all of us need to do that. But, the question must also arise in each heart: Are we just shaking hands or making a difference? Maybe you are the one to offer hope to those you know. Day by day we can be one or the other. The key is to be willing to take the help when we need it or offer help to others.

Oh if only we can see, not only the hand and the life boat, but also the place of hope from which the lifeboat came, that final place of safety from the storm...

Cheers from life’s storms,

Rev. Jon Bergen