‘There’s a wildness in the wind tonight as foam-flecked waves come pounding into shore

’I wrote the above sentence as the beginning of a poem saved in a journal , many years after this event when  I faced a health crisis’.            

         However, on this long-ago night from my vantage point on a high veranda looking across the Bay, my terrified child’s eyes could see a wild stormy sea and heavy menacing black clouds.   I was frightened and my heart was heavy with anxiety.   

          Dad had warned my half-sister not to go sailing.  He was uneasy about wind gusts and the movement of the sea.     

                                                It was a day of brilliant sunshine.  

         As a defiant 18-year-old she tossed her head. Her long golden brown curls swished across her shoulders,

        ‘You are not my real Dad, a fisherman and not a sailor.   My friends are going, so I’m going too. ‘  

                  At 5pm the wind changed suddenly and dramatically.  

        The small flotilla of white sailing vessels disappeared as they rounded the headland.

       Tempestuous rolling waves swept into the Bay, and black storm clouds crowded the skyline and completely obliterated the sailors from view.

       It began to rain!

       A Coast Guard rescue launch was immediately dispatched.

       Seven young lives – my sisters among them- were saved by prompt action, on that long ago night, but raw grief would accompany these teens throughout the years because of the loss of two dear friends.   

        Three of the sailing craft made it back to shore but wreckage of others were found on a  nearby island a few days later. 

                                               ***

       My sister learnt that night a valuable lesson about listening to the wise counsel from her elders.    

        The dawning of the new day with the brilliant Summer promise of normality and HOPE  had an impact upon me . I thank God that as I came to KNOW and Love Him and journey with Jesus through my life and the years, life itself showed me a pattern.

If WORD, WORSHIP and His Presence with us becomes a normal part of our journey through life, then whether it be the calm of peaceful days and golden dreams of Promise,  or the grief torn storms and tempests of life’s unexpected bowling balls of rolling seas, we can KNOW…… because The Saviour has rescued our souls, we can anticipate that a new and glorious day will dawn when all the storms are past.       

                       Hallelujah!

       The Promise fulfilled in Christ but prophetically written in Isaiah 41;v10 becomes our TRUTH.  

       Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am Your God! 

   Thank YOU.               

Heavenly Father. A-MEN.