Is God worried about climate change?

“Well, maybe he jolly well should be worried about climate change, because look what it’s doing to his beloved humans and the lovely, good creation he made for us. Doesn’t he care that we are perishing?” 

Oh dear, that’s a bit blunt, but that last part was actually said to Jesus, and to his face too, when his terrified disciples had shaken him awake in  the middle of a ferocious storm, with waves crashing over the gunnels of their boat and filling it up with copious amounts of Galilee lake water. 

Jesus, meanwhile, had been snoozing on a cushion at the back of the boat. But now that he was awake, having been shaken from his sleep by his terrified disciples, what had he got to say now, eh? Because the wind was still howling, the boat was being rocked to near tipping point, and the lake water was up to their kneecaps. How much more of a bashing could they take before they were all tossed into the raging waves? The disciples yelled at Jesus in a most accusatory fashion, then, “Don’t you care if we drown?’ (Mark 4:38).  

So, was Jesus worried too? Did he cling to the mast – if, that is, there was  any clinging room left not yet taken by the disciples? Or did he cry out, “Grab the oars, men, and head her into the wind, it’s the only way we’ll survive this”? Or did he look a bit flummoxed himself, that he’d got them into this situation in the first place, having set sail so late in the day (verse 35)? 

Actually, what he did do was stand up, with no mention of hanging onto the mast, or the gunnels, or to a disciple. And once he was up he yelled out, “Shut up, be quiet, be still.” And it soon became obvious who or what he was yelling at because the wind immediately stopped howling, and the waves became a gentle whimper. And then he turned to his disciples – a sight to see, I imagine, with their eyeballs as big as saucers and their jaws bouncing off the boat deck – and in the silence, all but for the gentle lapping of water at their feet, he asked them, “How come you chaps are so frightened? Haven’t you figured out who I am yet?”

Well, no they hadn’t, because with knees still knocking they were huddled together whispering to each other, “Who is this guy, that even the wind and waves obey him?” 

And, what’s more, he hadn’t been worried one bit by the wind and waves either. A storm coming at them out of the blue – or in our terms today, climate change hitting the headlines and scaring the liver out of us – wasn’t, and isn’t, a worry to God. He could stop whatever’s terrifying us in a flash shorter than a flash of lightning. He’s God. He made the planet. He made the weather systems. And now we know from Jesus that he can stop damaging weather systems in their tracks if we’re frightened.

So why doesn’t he do it today, then, as well?