Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Today on the Sea of Galilee a fierce gale whips up and the boat is threatened. Christ quells the storm and the apostles wonder at His control over Nature.
There is a wonderful, almost cosmic humor about this. These were men of the sea, these fishermen, braving risk to live. "Doing business in great waters." They chose their struggle and were at home with it. Yet they were fearful at this instant. And Christ is asleep! On a cushion! The real world and the spiritual did not seem aligned. They say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Christ awakens and says, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
Certainly these apostles knew many other fishermen killed in these waters, faithful pious men whose lives were not saved by their faith in God.
But Nature--and life--is not the whole point here. The spiritual becomes merged with both. So Christ saves them--for the day. The spiritual subdues the natural. And the spiritual remains a force in their lives.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.--Psalm 107:23,24
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
-John Masefield
For those in peril on the sea!
Today on the Sea of Galilee a fierce gale whips up and the boat is threatened. Christ quells the storm and the apostles wonder at His control over Nature.
There is a wonderful, almost cosmic humor about this. These were men of the sea, these fishermen, braving risk to live. "Doing business in great waters." They chose their struggle and were at home with it. Yet they were fearful at this instant. And Christ is asleep! On a cushion! The real world and the spiritual did not seem aligned. They say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Christ awakens and says, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
Certainly these apostles knew many other fishermen killed in these waters, faithful pious men whose lives were not saved by their faith in God.
But Nature--and life--is not the whole point here. The spiritual becomes merged with both. So Christ saves them--for the day. The spiritual subdues the natural. And the spiritual remains a force in their lives.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.--Psalm 107:23,24
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
-John Masefield
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