Some years ago I visited Niagara Falls in Canada and decided to do the typical tourist thing of taking a trip on the boat that travels beneath the mighty cataracts. The Maid of the Mist takes its expectant travellers right through the water screen. Those boarding this thrill-seeker's ride through the torrents are issued with cover-all plastic coats, which most just ignored as they seemed to be irrelevant on a hot and humid July day. Within minutes we were to discover how much we needed them!
The boat was pushed around by the thunderous downpour like a tiny toy being tossed into a washing machine. We felt helpless and exhilarated all at the same moment, and soaked to the skin. In those days of fairly pathetic cameras and even more derisory photo skills, I got very few shots of the experience, but I never forgot the sensation of being adrift in a maelstrom of raging storm-water.
In some ways it feels like that again just now. The UK is in various forms of lockdown brought about by a raging pandemic. The government changes its mind and its policies by the day, and seems to be on the run rather than running anything. Across the big pond, the mighty USA is divided almost completely in half, and there are very real fears of civil unrest in the wake of this disputed election. At the same time, Covid-19 is running riot across most of the Western world, from America to Europe and beyond. News is coming in of a fearful mutation of the virus via minks in Denmark and the US which may herald a threat to any vaccine and a further surge of infections. We are swirling in a sink-hole of international problems!
BUT - and it's a big but - that impression was false on board the Maid of the Mist, and it is also mistaken today. There was a captain on the bridge of that frail vessel, and he knew where he was heading. He also knew the capabilities of that tourist boat, and when to hold back. At every stage his hand was upon the tiller, his eye upon the flood.
Read these words from the Lord and be comforted today. They come from the Amplified Version of the Bible, Hebrews 13:5. "He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!"
If today you make Jesus captain of your destiny, and lord of your life, this present storm may not seem any less threatening or confusing, but the sense of peace and purpose he will give you will make a big difference.
