If you look closely, my glasses are asking, “Do I matter to you? Really?”
- Day 10
I stepped on them accidentally while stumbling out of bed in the morning.
Paul in Acts 27 is on his way to Rome when he experiences a huge tornado of a storm. Two hundred seventy-six people on board are facing death as he’s a prisoner on his way to Roman trial. While it was Paul’s desire to go to Rome, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be handcuffed and face near-drowning to get their dream. He and his fellow shipmates including prisoners and centurions reach the end of hope when God shows up and shows out (verse 24-25). Against all odds, their vessel manages to find the tiny dot of an island of modern-day Malta.
God’s providence pulls through. Paul sees everyone freaking out, God tells Him directly that it’s going to be ok, and Paul tells everyone. So he goes: “Sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told to me.” We’re going to be safe because God has promised safety to me, and not just to me, but everyone else here. Paul’s presence assured everyone else’s survival.
It’s like the show Prison Break, sort of. (Well Paul didn’t kill any more people after his conversion; however he was actually innocent of their false claims just like Michael was.) He takes everyone out from the ordeal with him. In the end though, Paul remains a prisoner, and does die for the sake of Christ, in chains, under Nero’s rule in Rome.
So this man saves all 275 people who are with him, who are daily coming to understand the power of the God whom Paul serves simply because they were in the same ship. Imagine if Paul had never taken the journey. In the last 2 verses of the chapter it states:
“And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land: and the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship.
And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.”
All safe and sound. We’re safe and sound in God as well. We’re on a journey for a reason. I’m reaffirmed in the fact that Christ’s presence in His believers is a shield over the community that we’re involved in. You are a protection to your co-workers! Your presence is like a balm from the day’s exhaustion. As ”little Christs” our life literally blesses others who don’t yet know the Christ who died for them. It’s a blessing AND a responsibility. We matter!
Note: Bible study help from Grace to You ministries.
