Season

There are four season in a year and while it might be summer here in the southern hemisphere it is winter in the northern hemisphere. I think about our men who went to war from Australia, leaving our shores in one season and arriving in the opposite season when they disembarked from the ships.

As I watch the television news about the storms today in Sydney I remember a story that my mother told me about waking up in the middle of the night during a storm. She was frightened but there was her father standing beside her bed. She jumped into his arms and he was able to cuddle her and calm her down.

As I turned this story over in my mind I occurred to me that the reason that he was already there may have been because the noise of the storm had woken him and invoked memories of the war. So feeling a little disturbed himself he was aware of the fears that his child might experience.

This story also reminds me of another father who is always there waiting for us to come to Him for comfort when we are afraid. His disciples were very afraid during a bad storm on the Sea of Galilee and yet Jesus walked out to be with them and comfort them; “And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” Matthew 14:26-27.

So today as I remember a soldier, Robert Archibald Deans, I remember a man who even after he came home, had the courage to put his fears aside and stepped out to help and comfort those going through a stormy season.