Somewhere in the fine print of your insurance policy, you may spot the words: “acts of God.” Does your insurance policy cover them? It had been a while since I heard someone use “acts of God” coverage as a selling point, until this morning. “Absolutely!” the salesman continued, “we will replace your solar panels for free due to any damage from an act of God. It not only caught my attention, but it also caught me off guard, and I laughed out loud! Oops!
The likable young man looked startled, almost offended. He was only trying to answer my question about vulnerability to lightning strikes. I quickly explained.
The total irony of the phrase, “acts of God” and the need for coverage from them, had caught my attention and my funny bone.
Just think about our modern society for a moment. In the creation versus evolution debate, which side do the thinkers of our modern era and society take? Evolution, of course. They dismiss the act of God as the creator of the universe.
The perpetual argument against God
A perpetual argument rages against including God or his acts in our culture. He is not welcome in our schools, in our pledge of allegiance or textbooks. Some protest His presence during the Christmas holiday, which celebrates His only Son’s birth. His commandments and the Bible are not welcome in courthouses. His name is defied and used to curse freely. You already know these things.
But here is the irony. People want insurance to cover the “acts of God,” while every day, they dismiss his existence. On the one hand, a person denies believing that God created the universe and the forces of nature that affect our planet earth. Then, on the other hand, they identify natural weather forces as something done by God, an act of God. And, on top of that, they want coverage for real losses incurred by damage from an act of God.
If storms are an act of God – how could God act through nature if he had no role in nature’s design, creation, and has no power to control it now?
Alternatively, acts of war are perils that generally are not covered by insurance policies. Face it. We know that man causes wars, and no one can control the acts of humankind against his fellow human being. Coverage denied.
Miraculous acts of God
If you heard Bible stories as you were growing up, then this one is undoubtedly in your memory bank (Mark 4: 35-41; Luke 8:22-25 ESV).
Fair sailing turned into a terrifying storm for Jesus’s disciples as they crossed the Sea of Galilee (Sea of Tiberius). Jesus was in the boat as well but sound asleep in the stern. These were seasoned fishermen in their familiar fishing boat sailing in well-known waters, but this was not a typical storm. Terrified of certain death, beaten with the wind, and tossed with waves, they roused Jesus from sleep to warn him of their impending doom. “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” they cried.
Perhaps they hoped that he could somehow salvage them from drowning in the turbulent waves when the boat that was filling with water sank. They had seen miraculous events in their time with him. They had seen people healed and amazed as demons were cast out. But these natural acts of God, those were unconquerable.
The narrative indicates that they had no anticipation that he would open his mouth and speak directly to the wind and the sea and that the storm forces would obediently cease their tumult. The boat would be floating on calm water. Their garments and faces no longer were blasted with wind and rain. There would be calm.
And so, it was. Peaceful, a “great calm,” was the instantaneous change at Jesus’s “rebuke” to the wind and his words to the sea, “Peace! Be still!”
They looked on Jesus with shocked awe. Their newly deepened understanding was frightening and almost impossible to conceive. Jesus posed this question to their wondering minds: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Confronting the seemingly impossible possibility
Imagine their thoughts. This Jesus, who they followed, can control nature. No one known on earth can control nature, only God. They certainly were not fit to share a boat with God, so – “Who then is this,” they asked among themselves, “that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Was this God, this man, present among them?
We are no different than the disciples. We, too, are frightened by our circumstances, including natural, uncontrollable “acts of God” in nature. Based on our own merits, we also would be terrified to find ourselves in the same boat, facing the creator God who controls the natural world.
But that all changed when Jesus came and paid the price to redeem humankind and establish peace with God for those who will believe in him.
Our greatest blessing
This Bible story took on new meaning when we boarded a boat at Gennesaret on a rainy, windy day in January for an excursion on the Sea of Galilee (pictured above). Our imagination was fully engaged with the disciple’s experience in this very location two millenniums ago during their severe, life-threatening storm.
Because of Jesus’s gift of life to us, for those of us who do believe in him, our greatest blessing in life becomes his presence. In torment, torture, conflict, slander, mistreatment, or abuse – his presence gives unseen shelter, confidence, and comfort.
We do not need an insurance policy to cover the acts of our God. He has us covered.
It is safe and good to share the boat with him.
And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness, and trust forever. Isaiah 32.17 ESV
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27 ESV
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Rom 15:13 ESV
This God – his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. Ps 18:30 ESV
