March is well-known for being one of the UK’s most unpredictable months for weather. One day it can be sunny and the next day wet and cold. The weather most associated with March is the blustery wind resulting from cold air coming from the north colliding with warm air coming from the south. The old rhyme ‘March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers’ aptly describes those three months of the year.
Yet we can see that even in our own country the old weather cycles are beginning to change. Our young people are bombarded constantly with information about global warming on social media. They are reminded that selfish human activity has contributed to climate change and to the extreme weather patterns which can be found all over the world.
The world around us, just like the March weather, may seem unpredictable and a cause for anxiety with news of war, terrorism and natural disasters. The inability of mankind to live at peace with one another, to care for each other and the environment, reminds us that we need to look beyond ourselves for guidance and peace of mind. Reading about the life and teachings of Jesus in the Bible can bring calm and peace to our lives just as he brought hope and peace to the people who listened to him when he was on the earth.
One day Jesus was in a boat with his disciples crossing a lake when a storm blew up. Jesus was tired after teaching the crowds all day and had fallen asleep. As the wind grew stronger and tossed the boat about the disciples were afraid they would drown. They woke Jesus, ‘And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm’ (Mark 4 v 39).
Although the March winds of worldly change may swirl around us and we can be fearful at times we need to remember what Jesus said to his disciples. ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ (John 14 v 27)