There's a small detail in the story of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4 that is so interesting. Scripture says that when Jesus and His disciples were traveling on a boat, a fierce storm hit. The disciples were terrified, scurrying around in a panic, but Jesus was sleeping soundly in the back of the boat "with his head on a cushion" (v. 38).
The small detail of the cushion, which God Himself inspired Mark to include in his narrative, teaches me two things: First, Jesus was tired because He was human. Honestly, I sometimes forget His humanness. When I picture Him, it's easy for me to see a god-like man who only looks human gliding across the earth, not having to eat, sleep, bathe, or go to the bathroom. It almost seems disrespectful to think of Jesus having to do some of these very human things. Degrading, even. But the fact that Jesus was fully human, and "stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man" (Philippians 2:7, JBP) is what makes the incarnation so amazing. What a testament to God's love for us, that He would stoop so low to save us!
It's also interesting to note that, as any human would, Jesus enjoyed the comforts available to Him. His enjoying comfort also means that He felt the "dis-comfort" of the cross - He fully experienced the pain and fear and shame and humiliation when He was stripped, beaten, and nailed to those wooden beams like a common criminal. The fact that He was the Son of God didn't make His death, or all the events leading up to it, any easier. He didn't exempt Himself the negative emotions that came with it. He felt them all, as any human would.
And because Jesus suffered as a human, we can be encouraged in our own suffering: "Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help" (Hebrews 4:14-16, JBP).
The second thing Jesus sleeping on a pillow teaches me is that He wasn't one bit afraid of the storm. He trusted His Father so fully that He was able to rest in the midst of the howling winds and crashing waves. Rest flows from a heart that trusts in a good Father. Ultimately, if we don't trust that God is good, and that He'll bring good out of our trial, then we'll never be able to rest in Him. Instead, we'll worry and fret and try to control situations that we have zero control over, which will only increase our anxiety.
One verse I've gone back to dozens of times since Matt's job loss in November is Psalm 119:68: "You are good, and You do what is good" (HCSB). This certainly doesn't mean that everything that happens to us in this life is good, but it does mean that our good Father has promised to fit everything into a pattern for good. And, ultimately, since any suffering that reaches us has first passed through His sovereign hands, we can trust that if He has seen fit to allow it, then He has a good purpose in it.
God is good, and He does what is good. I have to pray this verse often, especially when the Devil tries to tell me that God isn't good, and that He's withholding something good from me and Matt. My human nature is so tempted to believe the enemy's lies, especially when my circumstances seem to confirm them. But then I go back to the Word, and I see that God is good, that He does what is good, and that "He does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity" (Psalm 84:11). End of story. The truth silences the enemy.
If we trust in God's good heart toward us, we'll find rest, knowing that the One who holds the whole world in His hands also holds us. And that He loves us with an everlasting love.
"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him" (Psalm 37:7, KJV).
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