Who Ya Gonna Call?

It is rare for you to know when a disaster will strike. It might be a tornado, a car wreck, or a phone call telling you that someone who has been your dearest friend your whole life has a terminal disease. It’s the suddenness that catches your breath away, that knocks you back on your heels. You may have spent plenty of time with Jesus, and He’s prepared your heart, but when it happens, sorrow washes over us.

Jesus was familiar with grief and sorrow, as this prophetic word from Isaiah makes clear.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
– Isaiah 53:3

We all like to talk about the victories God has won in our lives, but we rarely talk about our first response. When the flood waters are rising, the wind is raging, and our thoughts are racing, who will we call? In those moments, we find out how powerless people are.

A weatherman can’t stop a tornado. The police can’t stop the truck that is crashing into our car. And a call to 911 can’t fix our broken hearts. But when we call on Jesus we are calling on the one that held back the waters for the Israelites to escape Egypt, the one who stopped the wind from wrecking the tiny boat that held His apostles, the one who protected Elijah when the mountain where he stood on was torn to pieces, when an earthquake shook the ground upon which he stood, and when fire poured upon the place he hid.

These words I’ve written are not those of a devotional where I tie it all together and put a ribbon on it. In the span of two or three weeks, someone very dear to me has received sad news piled upon sad news, and I can’t make it better. But we know who to call. We are calling on Jesus, not to be religious, but to be close to the one who cares for us.

Jesus may use 911 or the police or the weather-person, but the source of our hope is Jesus. He loves us, and since I gave my life to Jesus all those years ago, He has proved Himself trustworthy. I know He will once again. May we all receive God in His infinite greatness through our union with Christ Jesus, our Lord.