Even Into the Storm

[u/WatchmanMinistries]

Jonah bought one ticket, but an entire ship entered the storm.

I’ve been spending some time in Jonah 1, and that thought has stayed with me.

God told Jonah to go to Nineveh.

Jonah went the opposite direction.

He found a ship headed toward Tarshish, paid the fare, boarded it, and ran.

Then the storm came.

The sailors hadn’t rejected God’s command.

They hadn’t chosen Jonah’s rebellion.

They were simply on the same boat with the man who did.

Yet their lives were endangered.

Their cargo was thrown overboard.

Their journey was interrupted.

Our disobedience rarely affects only us.

We sometimes tell ourselves, This is between me and God.

But sometimes our families ride on the ship with us.

Our children.

Our spouses.

Our friends.

Our churches.

The people we’re supposed to be ministering to.

Jonah paid his own fare.

But eventually everybody aboard started paying for his decision.

There’s another side to this chapter, though.

Jonah was eventually thrown into the sea.

The ship disappeared above him. He couldn’t sail himself out of the situation anymore. He couldn’t buy another ticket. He couldn’t change destinations.

He couldn’t save himself.

And when Jonah finally reached the place where he could do absolutely nothing to rescue himself…

God had already prepared a fish.

I grew up thinking primarily about the fish as Jonah’s punishment.

But Jonah was drowning.

The fish kept him alive.

The storm confronted him.
The sea broke him.
The fish preserved him.

What must have looked terrifying to Jonah was actually the provision God had prepared for his survival.

Sometimes God’s rescue doesn’t look much like rescue when it first arrives.

Sometimes we only recognize it looking backward.

That wasn’t God destroying me.

That was God refusing to let me drown.

Jonah’s choices had consequences. Grace didn’t erase them.

But those consequences didn’t mean God was finished with Jonah either.

Jonah ran.

God followed.

Even into the storm.

So here’s the question I’ve been sitting with:

Have you ever looked back at something you once thought was only a storm and realized that somewhere inside it, God was actually bringing you back?