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Eternal Father strong to save


Ezekiel 27:33

When your wares came from the seas, you satisfied many peoples; with your abundant wealth and merchandise you enriched the kings of the earth.

 

Thought for the day – Eternal Father strong to save

When I was training to be a minister, I had the opportunity to visit the Queen Victoria Seafarers Rest. It’s a program run by the Methodist Church as an outreach to seafarers. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here before, but my family has a long tradition of being seafarers. My Dad was a communications specialist in the Royal Navy; I had an uncle that served as a submariner; and my grandad served on a destroyer. I also have friends who serve in the merchant navy and from my time in Cornwall I know lots of people who are fisherman. I spent three months of my life aboard a ship as a project manager back in 2000. I have a huge respect and love for seafarers.

 

Seafarers are a special group of people who put their lives on the line for us on a regular basis. Think about it for a second. Have a look around wherever you are now. If something you have or own or have eaten has come from a different country, the probability is it has come to you on a ship. And a life at sea is nowhere as glamourous as people think it is. Nothing says welcome like a dirty polluted harbour.

 

So why the focus on seafarers when Ezekiel’s prophecy is about the fall of Tyre? Tyre was built on the back of shipping and trading. Sailing, shipping and trade are universal and historic. We have always done it. Tyre was not unique.  So today let’s remember those who go to sea for us. Whether it’s catching fish, transporting cargo or keeping us safe let’s pray for them. The God who calms the storm and the waves, is able to keep them safe on the waves and on land.

 

Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm does bind the restless wave,

Who bids the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep;

O hear us when we cry to Thee

For those in peril on the sea.




 

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