CHRIST, LORD of CREATION: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18). Only the miracle of creation and divine maintenance preserves our planet and its wonderful adaptations and provisions for the propagation of human life. Within our earth itself wind, wave, lightning, storm, flood, drought, avalanche, earthquake, fire, heat, cold, germ, virus, epidemic, all from time to time threaten and destroy life. Sooner or later one of them may destroy us. The story of the stilling of the storm is not, of course, meant to tell us that Christ will never allow any believer to perish by drowning, or by any other natural disaster. Many believers have so perished. It does demonstrate that He is Lord of the physical forces in the universe, that for Him nothing happens by accident, and that no force in all creation can destroy His plan for our eternal salvation or “separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (see Rom 8:38-39). —D.W. Gooding