The following devotion was featured in Unfinished, Church Anew’s Lent in a Box series for 2023. Learn more about the resources here. 

The Gift of Awe

Rev. Natalia Terfa

Matthew 8:23-27

23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 A windstorm suddenly arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a dead calm. 27 They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

I love to paint a mental picture of a particular moment in this story. It’s the minute or two right after Jesus calms the storm. I imagine the disciples all sitting there, silent and still, just looking at each other in total shock. I imagine Jesus acting normally, no big deal, like he didn’t just rebuke nature and like nature didn’t just listen to him, and the disciples are coming down off one adrenaline rush and heading right into another because DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?! WHO IS THIS GUY?!

No one wants to say anything, but also they all want to say something. 

It makes me laugh to picture it. 

The disciples quickly go from afraid to terrified. For very different reasons, but still, they aren’t done with their big feelings quite yet. They have watched Jesus heal people, feed people, perform miracles, cast out demons, and yet this is what makes them afraid? 

Yes. This is when they realize how powerful God is. 

When Martin Luther wrote his Small Catechism, he kept using the language of “fearing God.” It took me well into adulthood to understand that what he spoke of was the very feeling that the disciples shared when the storm listened to God and the sea went calm. It’s awe, but more. 

I’m not sure we have too many opportunities to experience this same thing, but I think leaving room for awe in our lives can get us a little closer. 

What inspires awe for you? 

For me it’s big nature - like the sky at night, or mountains, or the ocean. Things that remind me of my smallness, and the beauty of God’s bigness. 

Awe. 

I wonder what it might feel like to make a little time for awe in the days we have left in this Lenten season. How might you cultivate a bit of the awe that creates space for faith, just as it did for the disciples on that boat in the moments of calm right after the storm. 

Prayer

Awesome God, thank you for the ways you show us the bigness of your creation and love. Thank you for the gift of awe, and help us draw us closer to you each time we experience it. Amen.