What Kind of Man is This?

"Jesus got into a boat and his followers went with him. A great storm arose on the lake so that the waves covered the boat, but Jesus was sleeping. His followers went to him and woke him, saying, 'Lord save us! We will drown!' Jesus answered, 'Why are you afraid? You don't have enough faith.' Then Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely calm. The men were amazed and said, 'What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!'" ~ Matthew 8:23-27, NCV

When I was in the sixth grade, my family moved from Kansas City, about 45 minutes south to a small, rural town -- Cleveland, Missouri, population (now) 679. The house we moved into sat on two and a-half acres, and had a pond in back. It was a great place to live for me and my two younger brothers, because we had more room to roam than we ever knew what to do with.

One disadvantage, however, was that we were forced to share all that acreage with my least favorite creature in the world: snakes. Ribbon snakes, black snakes, and copperheads were common as well as an occasional water moccasin. It could be my imagination, but I recall legends of 8-foot rattle snakes roaming those parts, and stories of 16-foot boa constrictors that preyed on 10, 11 and 12 year-old boys. While living in that house I developed a serious fear of snakes. It started as a fear, grew into a paranoia, and then morphed into a full-blown phobia. I was petrified of snakes.

One warm summer evening, one of those critters crawled inside the house, and was inching his slimy, slithering body up a door frame. I was frozen in terror. My Dad, however, sprang into action. With super-human courage, he confronted that vermin with his trusty square-edged shovel. He disposed of the evil attacker in short order, rescuing me -- and our family -- from certain death. After tossing the remains of the intruder outside, I looked at my Dad with a new sense of awe and amazement, wondering, "What kind of man is this?"

The gospel writer Matthew shares that God views our storms in the same way my Dad viewed that snake. He wrote, Jesus, "got up ... gave a command ... and it became completely calm." (v. 26) Just like my Dad handled my great fear of snakes with great calm, Jesus handled the furious storm with great calm. The sea became as still as a frozen lake. And the disciples were left wondering to themself, "What kind of man is this?"

Through trust in God, we can have the kind of courage we need to overcome life's storms. We can fear less and trust more. Whether our fears are of snakes or storms, we have a heavenly Father ready to handle any fear we'll face. That's just the kind of Father He is!