Daily Reflection Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

 I used to teach religious education to third graders and I always tried to come up with a clever theme each year. One year I decided to do everything around a life jacket. The theme kept the kids engaged and wanting to know more about Jesus. We took brown paper bags and turned them into life jackets. Every Sunday we would put on our life jackets and get into our boats. They would learn about Jesus and I would teach them Jesus was their life jacket! After each class I would send them home with little paper life preservers. Their parents would write a good deed they did on the life preserver and each week we would glue them on to our life jackets. The good deeds were meant to be easy. Share with your siblings, do your homework without arguing, put your toys away, be kind. If they felt it was hard, they were to ask Jesus to help them. I just wanted them to know Jesus was always in the boat with them. I came up with this idea after being in a storm. 



Twenty-four years ago, my children were four, six and eight. Our summer tradition was to go crabbing. We would rent a boat and go out in Barnegat Bay. It was a perfect day. The water was calm and the sun was shining. My brother-in-law came out on his boat with my father-in-law and we crabbed all day. When it was time to go back, I was in the boat with my two youngest and my father-in-law. My husband and oldest son went back in the other boat. When traveling by boat we were minutes from home. We crossed into the open bay and out of nowhere a storm came in. The waves were crazy and our little boat was getting tossed around.

My father-in-law and I were scared and anxious and the kids thought it was an adventure. My father-in-law was steering the boat into the wind, and it felt like we weren’t moving at all. We finally got outside the channel markers and I remember my husband saying that the water was only four feet deep in that area. I jumped out of the boat, to my father-in-law‘s horror, and started pulling the boat. I learned shortly after that that my father-in-law couldn’t swim. I remember when we got to the shore saying thank you Jesus!!! There was several minutes where I was begging God to get us back to shore and I was bartering with him. I was just like the apostles, faith and trust was not there. I could not control the waves or the wind. Then out of nowhere I felt a sense of calm. I was able to control my emotions and that was thanks to Jesus. This realization came years later after getting to know and love our Lord. Every storm has a lesson and I learned trust that day.

Not every storm in our lives is weather related. We are always going to face storms. They may come in the form of illness, job loss, divorce or the death of a loved one. How we deal with the storms are the lessons we learn in life. 

In their storm the apostles learned that Jesus was no ordinary man. They got a glimpse of his divinity.  Over two thousand years later, in my storm, I learned that I needed to rely on Jesus without bartering. I learned, what the apostles learned, to have faith. God does not create the storms, but he does accompany us and teach us in each storm. That is the lesson I wanted my third graders to learn and it is a lesson I continue to learn. Now I don’t leave home without my life jacket. Don’t forget to take yours.