“Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along,…in the boat.” Mark 4:36a NIV

There has been a global event in our world since our last newsletter. Our habits have changed. Our work has changed. Our children’s education has changed. Life, as we know it, has been altered. Even our language has expanded to embrace new words and new ideas: Social distancing, flatten the curve, home quarantine. Ventilators.

Our order is disrupted. Our systems are upended. There is a storm raging, and fear lies in wait to captivate our hearts and minds. As I am writing this the numbers of those infected are growing daily.

Beloved, we must remember that Jesus is with us, here in the boat. He can calm the raging storm sweeping the globe. He can vanquish the fear attempting to take over our lives. Remember above all, He is with us. He has not left us adrift in this raging sea. We are with Him and He is with us. And, in Him, we are safe.

I have been thinking about times in the past where I felt frightened and vulnerable. One clear memory was about a year into the Iraq war. Josiah was attending school in Chiang Mai. Although the students were from all over the world, over 50 percent were from the United States. One evening we heard from our guards (former Thai military) that a car filled with Middle Eastern men had driven back and forth in front of the school. Then one man got out of the vehicle and approached the guards asking them what percentage of the students were Americans?

Oh!! My mother’s heart was cold with fear, and nothing, NOTHING in me wanted to send Josiah back to that school the next day. I wept and cried and felt so far away from home. In that night of stormy fear, God’s peace did come. Jesus was there in the boat. He was with our children, our teachers, our school guards. We later learned that those men were caught by police that very evening; they proved to be no threat to us…at all!

Beloved. We need to draw near to Jesus and cry out to God with all that is in us on behalf of our world: our families, our friends, our communities, our doctors and health care workers, our churches. Our leaders. All of them.

Finally, let us draw near to God in full assurance of faith, knowing that as we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. Jesus. You are in the Boat!

~ Debbie Ecker