NasaanAngPanginoon? Natutulog ba ang Diyos?
Perhaps no other questions are juxtaposed together in times of trepidation such as what the world is going through now than these two. If the angels Michael and Gabriel were to have their own analytics in heaven, they would be reporting to God how He is trending.
Nasaan ang Panginoon? He’s with us. He has always been among us, holding us up in the same way Jesus held Peter’s hand as the veteran fisherman walked on treacherous waters (Mt. 14:30).
Walking alone was already miraculous in the same way that it is miraculous that I am here writing this and you are there reading it in the midst of taunting mortality. Miracles still happen because God is with us, among us. He is not monitoring from a distance because He feels He doesn’t have to be where the action is nor it’s His rest day. He never answers our prayers with, “Pero nandito na ako…so what’s your problem?” Instead, He sustains us through the crisis with His presence “at the start” (Joshua 1:9, Ps. 46:1-3, Isa. 41:10).
Natutulog ba ang Diyos? Well, He did when He was on earth, even slept like a baby through what probably was the strongest storm as it made crying babies out of seasoned fishermen.
“Teacher, don’t you care about us? We are going to drown!”(Mark 8:38 ESV). Having known nothing but fishing, the disciples (except for the former tax collector) were used to the cruelty of the waves but they felt they were going to see the Father sooner than they wanted. They woke Jesus up from his peaceful slumber who immediately calmed the lake but scared the “be-you-know-what” out of them. “They were very afraid and asked each other, “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the water obey him!” (v. 15 ESV).
“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40 ESV) It was His turn to ask.
The key word there is not faith but “still.” They had just witnessed miraculous healing one after another in the previous chapter which proved Jesus was above and beyond the caprices of nature but they failed to realize this perhaps because they were mere spectators oohing and aahing until they found themselves “AAAAAHHHHHH!!!-ing” for dear life.
In both incidents, the disciples focused on their fear instead of the God who was among them which caused them unnecessary high blood pressure. Let us learn from them during this time where a droplet could send us to the next life. Yes, we need to take precaution but let us not be microscopic of COVID-19 but magnify instead the God of Psalm 19 “the one who rescues” us.
Perhaps no other questions are juxtaposed together in times of trepidation such as what the world is going through now than these two. If the angels Michael and Gabriel were to have their own analytics in heaven, they would be reporting to God how He is trending.
Nasaan ang Panginoon? He’s with us. He has always been among us, holding us up in the same way Jesus held Peter’s hand as the veteran fisherman walked on treacherous waters (Mt. 14:30).
Walking alone was already miraculous in the same way that it is miraculous that I am here writing this and you are there reading it in the midst of taunting mortality. Miracles still happen because God is with us, among us. He is not monitoring from a distance because He feels He doesn’t have to be where the action is nor it’s His rest day. He never answers our prayers with, “Pero nandito na ako…so what’s your problem?” Instead, He sustains us through the crisis with His presence “at the start” (Joshua 1:9, Ps. 46:1-3, Isa. 41:10).
Natutulog ba ang Diyos? Well, He did when He was on earth, even slept like a baby through what probably was the strongest storm as it made crying babies out of seasoned fishermen.
“Teacher, don’t you care about us? We are going to drown!”(Mark 8:38 ESV). Having known nothing but fishing, the disciples (except for the former tax collector) were used to the cruelty of the waves but they felt they were going to see the Father sooner than they wanted. They woke Jesus up from his peaceful slumber who immediately calmed the lake but scared the “be-you-know-what” out of them. “They were very afraid and asked each other, “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the water obey him!” (v. 15 ESV).
“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40 ESV) It was His turn to ask.
The key word there is not faith but “still.” They had just witnessed miraculous healing one after another in the previous chapter which proved Jesus was above and beyond the caprices of nature but they failed to realize this perhaps because they were mere spectators oohing and aahing until they found themselves “AAAAAHHHHHH!!!-ing” for dear life.
In both incidents, the disciples focused on their fear instead of the God who was among them which caused them unnecessary high blood pressure. Let us learn from them during this time where a droplet could send us to the next life. Yes, we need to take precaution but let us not be microscopic of COVID-19 but magnify instead the God of Psalm 19 “the one who rescues” us.