PEACE AND SEMI-TRUCKS AT THE SEA OF GALILEE

 I had been invited to Jerusalem to present a discovery my team had made to a group of scientists. As there were many other scientists presenting that I wanted to hear, Mom was on her own during the day.

“I’m not sure what you are going to do all day, all of the TV channels are in Hebrew.” I said to her as I got ready to leave.

“Oh, don’t worry. I will probably stay in the room and catch up on some sleep, journal, and read this book.” Well, it didn’t sound very exciting to me, and in truth I felt a bit guilty leaving her there. But science called.

I got back to the room at dinner time, and there was no Barb in the room. Figuring she went to supper, I went down to the hotel lounge. No Barb eating supper. I went back to the room wondering what to do as our cell phones were not working well there, and I couldn’t get hold of her. Had she gotten lost? Had someone hurt her? Did she know where the embassy was?

Just as I was about to trigger Defcon 5 on my panic button, here comes Barb breezing through the hotel room door her hands full of shopping bags.

“Where have you been?” I asked, feeling relief settle over me like a warm blanket just knowing she was safely in the room.

“Oh, I went to Bethlehem today.”

“You did WHAT?” I sat down on the edge of the bed in disbelief. You see, I had to get special permission from my university to come to Jerusalem because it is on a list of high risk areas and I was particularly instructed not to go to Bethlehem because that’s where most of the violent gang activity was. The irony of knowing Bethlehem as the City of Peace, the town of David did not escape me.

“Well, you may not be able to go to Bethlehem, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go.” Her beautiful brown eyes were twinkling with excitement, and I shook my head, chuckling.

“Wow, Mom. I am so not surprised. You know you didn’t even leave me a note.”

“Didn’t I?” she said absently, and then proceeded to tell me about her day’s adventures at the birthplace of Jesus.

Afterwards, I got on the computer and booked us a day trip to Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee for the day after the conference ended.

“There now.” I said to her, “Perhaps that will satiate your desire to leave the city while I am at the conference.” We both giggled over that, because in truth we knew I was so proud of her adventurous spirit.

The day trip to Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee touched my heart in so many ways. Jesus spent more time in this region of Israel than He did in Jerusalem (Matthew 4:23), and some of our favorite stories of His life took place at the Sea of Galilee. There was the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:13-21), the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12), and the calming of the storm (Matthew 8:23-27). If you are looking for all the stories, the Sea of Galilee was also referred to in the Bible as the Sea of Chinnereth, Lake of Gennesaret, and Sea of Tiberias. Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, is at the southwest end of the Galilee region.

Turns out the Sea of Galilee is a popular place for camping. When we got off the tour bus, there were tents packed in among the olive trees, you could smell campfire grills, and see people playing in the water and on the beach. The bowl-shaped Sea of Galilee is a fresh water lake that lies 700 feet below sea level 70 miles north of Jerusalem. It is quite shallow for a lake and is surrounded by mountains which makes it the ideal environment for fish to thrive. No wonder that Peter and his brother Andrew made a living there as fishermen.

I wanted to touch it. Had this irresistible desire to touch that water below us fed by the Jordan river where Jesus had been baptized by his cousin John. This must’ve been what my youngest son, Isaac felt when we had the floors tiled when he was 2 years old. We had to stay off the tile while it cured, and Isaac would go right up to the edge of the tile and stare at it longingly then look at me with such great despair because he knew he couldn’t touch the tile. But I sure could touch that water at the Sea of Galilee, and so while Mom stayed on the overlook, I climbed down the slope of volcanic basalt rock to the shore and sat down on the rocks with my fingers gently skimming the surface of that lake.

I can’t explain why I was so gentle about touching the water. Even writing these words a month later, my eyes well up with tears at the memory. Just touching the surface of that water made me feel like I had been washed over in peace. My Jesus had been here. He had loved this place. He had walked these shores. He had spoken of love and shown great compassion to thousands from here.

He had also slept in a fishing boat during the night while a “mega lalaipsi “ or cyclone sized storm raged on the lake. His disciples were with him—4 of whom were experienced seamen—and were quite certain they would die because of the strength of the storm which raged out of the mountains surrounding the lake. The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior comes to mind.

With one word, Jesus stopped the storm. At first, it really doesn’t sound like that mighty of a miracle compared to say, healing a blind man (John 9:1-12) which would have required eye nerve repair that modern science can’t manage to this day. But if you consider the storm they experienced that night had an equivalent of about one million horsepower…! OK, you are still not really impressed right? Well, neither was I because I really have no idea what horsepower is. So with some really rough estimates, how about this? You are standing in a parking lot with 1,785 semi-trucks barreling towards you at 110 mph. You will die. Jesus steps in front of you, says “Peace, be still” and those semi-trucks stop in their tracks. All 1,785 of them. Can’t you just smell the putrid burning rubber of the tires? That was the force of the wind storm that Jesus instantly stopped.

Can you do that?

Many claim that it was just a coincidence that Jesus spoke and the storm quit because storms on the Sea of Galilee can ramp up and disappear quite suddenly. But in case you missed it, this was a mega lalaipsi storm. A wind storm of cyclone ferocity. Not some ordinary Mount Hermon derived low pressure thing. Even though this was not an ordinary storm, there was one other thing: THE SEA BECAME LIKE GLASS after Jesus stopped the cyclone winds.

Now the Sea of Galilee is only 200 feet deep, so it’s quite shallow for a lake. It wouldn’t take much for the waves to get really enormous—one famous storm in modern times created waves 10 feet high that did significant damage to the city of Tiberias on its western shore. Google “Jesus calms the storm” to see some of the beautiful paintings depicting that night out on the water (Rembrandt comes to mind). But any experienced seaman knows that after such a storm, the waters stay turbulent for hours and sometimes days before they return to steady state.

But when Jesus spoke, the sea became like glass. It instantly returned to steady state. It instantly experienced peace. It didn’t need any time to recover from the storm. It was as if the storm had never happened. No evidence of it whatsoever. Except for the changed hearts of 12 men who were in that boat with Jesus—the Master of the Wind and Waves (Matthew 8:27).

I don’t know about you, but I want that kind of peace. My soul aches for that. My heart cries for that. My mind works hard to achieve that. But it is not to be had by anything that I can do. No, it can only become mine when I cling to THE ONE who is the source of perfect peace. Jesus. And sometimes, my sweet friends, He allows you to experience some awfully mighty storms so that you will remember He is the source of perfect peace.

I skimmed the water with my fingers for another minute, soaking up the moment as I gazed out over the lake at the Golan Heights in the distance to the east. Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan lies beyond those mountains, with Jordan and Egypt to the south and Lebanon, Turkey, and Russia to the north. Israel is surrounded on 3 sides by semi-trucks barreling towards them. Yet here I was experiencing that perfect peace that only Jesus can provide. We are ALL in some sort of boat with storms raging about us. But it is my prayer we all remember that the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) is in the boat with us and will provide peace so perfect that there will be no evidence that there was ever a storm. Except that our hearts will be changed forever.

HE IS COMING. HALLELUJAH!!