This week we have watched Irma, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, leave a path of destruction and devastation throughout the Caribbean, and then Florida.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are facing “barely habitable” conditions.

Yet, Irma is not alone. Hurricanes Katia is strengthening off the Gulf of Mexico, and Jose is lining up with the Caribbean, again. This is just days after Harvey tore through Texas and Louisiana.

With the frequency of these hurricanes, watchers are getting through the hurricane alphabet quicker than usual. Hurricanes are named in order of the alphabet; the first letter of the name comes from the alphabetic letter next to be used.

It reminds me of a name given, not to a hurricane, but to one who calmed a great storm. He is called the “Alpha and Omega” – these are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and was a name given to Jesus. He found Himself in a boat, with His friends, in the middle of a storm. But something different happened. Jesus “got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm” (Mark 4:39).

Where hurricanes may come and go, Jesus is constant and never ending, with the power to change circumstances. Not that He stops every hurricane now: that won’t happen until He returns to earth to restore all things.

But, today, He can be invited into the boat of our life to be a constant companion in helping us endure and weather the storms of our life.

This message was written by Richard Fowler, and published on the website of Grace Communion International in the UK: http://gracecom.church/