Happiest days of our lives: Day we buy a boat and day we sell it

You may have heard about the two fellows fishing on the river near the highway when a funeral procession came by.
One of the fellows stood up in the boat, took his cap off, and bowed his head.
“You certainly are respectful of funerals,” the other boater said.
“It’s the least I could do. After all, I was married to her for 40 years.”
Boats are so very important to lots of people nowadays. They were also important in biblical times. In fact, Jesus used a boat to teach his disciples some very valuable lessons.
In Matthew 14, Jesus told the disciples to get into a boat and row to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. When the boat was about halfway across, a storm blew in and the disciples were afraid they were going to drown in massive waves. When they had lost all hope, they saw Jesus coming toward them, walking on the water.
When Peter realized it was Jesus, he stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. But Peter got scared and began to sink. Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him.
That boat could represent our walk with Christ. Sometimes He wants us in the boat, heading to the place He’d have us go. Sometimes He wants us out of the boat, out of our comfort zones, to take on challenges that frighten us.
Those are important lessons, indeed. But perhaps the most important lesson is that the Lord can absolutely rock our boats when He wants to get our attention. We have all experienced times in our lives when storms have come into our lives, and we weren’t even sure if we would survive only to have Jesus show up.
In those times, we come to understand what the disciples learned in the boat that night, that the Lord is in control and that we’re safe in his mighty hand.
Peter was never safer than when Jesus reached out for him, even though the storm was raging around him. That’s true for us, as well.
So, yes, we can learn lessons from boats, including that all important one that says the happiest days of our lives are the day we buy a boat and the day we sell it.

Reach Roger Alford at 502-514-6857 or rogeralford1@gmail.com