Crossing over to the other side

My day had started filling in as a spare school bus driver out in the Scotsburn-West Branch area. I wasn’t totally familiar with the myriad of roads in this part of the county but I had a great route description to follow. I was grateful as long as I could make the necessary turns without straying from the given route provided by the regular driver.

Regardless of the information laid out for me on paper, it wasn’t as easy as you would think. Holding the paper in my left hand as well as on the wheel, and my right hand firmly gripping the wheel, I had to stay alert, as one missed turn and I would be lost. I was a man on a mission looking for my students in very unfamiliar territory. I felt I had crossed over to the other side and I wasn’t sure of the outcome. When I started, the daylight had not yet appeared but I knew before long the sun would be risen bright and strong.

In St. Mark’s Gospel, chapter 4, Jesus told his disciples: “Let us go over to the other side.” For Jesus, the sun had set and darkness set over the land. They had left the crowd behind and were now travelling in a boat when a furious squall came up and the waves had broken over the boat. Mark’s gospel records that “the boat was nearly swamped.” (Verse 37)

I was fortunate that day to have a student guiding me so that I would not get lost. I was amazed at the isolation of these homes on the backroads of Pictou County with a house here, and then a long ride before another house would appear. It brought back many memories of the isolation we as children endured living up the railroad tracks in the back woods of Sylvester. I remember walking a half-mile down the railroad to James and Ruth Chennell’s home near Sylvester Station to use the phone in an emergency call.

Back to the Gospel story, where was Jesus when the storm waves had broken over the boat? St. Mark’s gospel records Jesus being in the stern of the boat, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples being fearful of their lives wanted to make an emergency call to the Man who slept so soundly in the centre of this storm. They awakened him and said: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Verse 38)

For me driving the bus in these isolated areas now towards the end of the day, a flashback had occurred of many years earlier when I was a young man facing a storm in my own life and I remember calling out: “Jesus, I need you, where are you?” While I cannot share the flashback in this article, I can say that it was very painful and it stirred up a lot of emotions. I was thinking of the isolation that families in this area must face at times when they need help to cope with emergencies. Who will help them when the furious squalls come up and the waves break over their lives? That stirred up a painful memory in my own life.

For the disciples in the boat fearful of their lives, now cry out to Jesus and awaken him. Jesus always comes to the rescue of his dear children when we are faced with challenges too strong to conquer without divine intervention. The disciples admitted their fear and reached out to Jesus for help. Jesus upon being awakened and knowing their circumstances got up and “rebuked the wind and said to the waves: ‘Peace, be still.’” The Bible records that immediately the winds ceased and “there was a great calm.” (Mark 4:39) For you see, the Master had intervened. The disciples in the boat were left with the question by Jesus why they had feared for their lives. “Didn’t they have any faith at all,” he asked?

The bus ride would soon end with my last remaining student getting off the bus. At this time I was on an isolated dirt road as I approached his home and he cheerfully said goodnight. At this point the final note on the route description said: “Return to Salt Springs and park the bus.” Salt Springs, I thought. How do I get back home now without anyone to guide me? It was now dark and so I retraced the path back to the driver’s home to park the bus, no easy feat to achieve when you don’t know the roads.

The memories of long ago, my own flashback, reminded me that Jesus had come to the rescue while the storm was raging. I was never alone or isolated and as I parked the bus later, I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that the words of the Master: “Peace, be still,” would see me through the storm of my earlier years. Whatever storms you are facing, reach out to the One that even the winds and the waves obey.

“Holding the paper in my left hand as well as on the wheel, and my right hand firmly gripping the wheel, I had to stay alert, as one missed turn and I would be lost.”