And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark 4:39 ESV

Because its founding dates back to 1650, my home state of Connecticut, has many interesting historical sites, and one of my favorites is Mystic Seaport, because it shows how the old whaling ships were built. For me, the most astonishing things of the construction of those boats was the prow. Any good prow began its journey as the lower trunk of a large white oak tree, and rather than the usual practice of cutting the tree at its base, it was cut as far above the ground as possible. Then, the men would dig out the entire stump, and from that mass of roots and tree trunk an almost unbreakable piece was sawn for the prow.

In today’s verse we see Jesus confronting a storm that had His disciples frightened to death. The waves had begun swamping their small fishing boat, and the wind was so wild that they had to shout to be heard. Terrified that they were all about to drown, they woke Jesus, who was somehow calmly taking a nap in the midst of the chaos. Maybe they hoped that Jesus would help bail or at least pray that they could survive. But what He did next, no one even imagined. Jesus calmed the storm with three words. “Peace be still!” His faith was like the prow of those ancient whaling ships. He had come from heaven’s throne to be born a stable and with all the universe under his rule he chose to grow up in a small village. Though Jesus could have made stones into bread, He fasted forty days in the wilderness and overcame every temptation of the devil. But more than even these things, Jesus was, just like that oak tree that was cut down, dug from the ground and fashioned into the forerunner of our salvation. He is the anchor of our soul, the Captain of our ship, the prow of the ark, which is His church, and our shelter in every storm!