power in weakness

By Rembrandt - www.gardnermuseum.org : Home : Info : Pic, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6812612

This painting is a favorite of mine—it’s stunning. Painted by Rembrandt in the 17th Century and once housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, this painting is shrouded in mystery. On March 18, 1990, it was stolen along with 12 other works totaling almost half a billion dollars; it is considered the biggest art heist in history. “Christ in the Storm of the Sea of Galilee” was the largest painting stolen at 5’x4’. In the past 33 years, none of the stolen pieces of art have been recovered. 

I think about this painting every time we read this Sunday’s Gospel. Just like the storms in my life, my eye immediately moves to the space of panic, chaos, and fear while Jesus fades to the periphery. Rembrandt’s use of light highlights this human weakness—our tendency to quickly forget the presence of God before us.

As the storm throws the peace of my vessel upwards, the waves push me to action, and my gaze always falls upon the ropes before me—that thing within my reach that I can manipulate through pushes and pulls to gain control over a storm thats strength seems to exist simply to proclaim my frailty. For me, the solution is always about “doing.” What can I “do” to fix what rages around me? What can I “do” to regain peace? What can I “do” to survive the storm? I spend a lot of energy scurrying up masts, trying to rise above what Christ asks me to sail through.

Indeed, the storms in my life proclaim my frailty, but God allows them only so that I may share in His strength. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” 

For some of us, it is a hard pill to swallow when we realize that our weakness is our strength because it is precisely when we don’t strong arm up a mast or pull for toggles that do nothing that we notice who is sitting in the boat with us. In a storm, there is nothing we can “do” more powerful than to be still and lean closer to the One who can rebuke the wind and sea.

For the next few weeks, we are sharing our Pray, Grow, & Serve kid’s devotionals based on old classics with you. Check out the book from the library, read the story with your littles, and plant seeds! This week, we are sharing the story of The Ugly Duckling. After reading, have a Christ-centered, life-affirming discussion with your children using our PGS.

For more information about joyfully reawakening a culture of life within your domestic church, visit www.pelicanprojectministry.org.