Centurion Faith

At the same time, all the Ionian coastal communities were under the siege of a historic storm. For example, the Apiary community was being destroyed along with thousands of other tiny shoreline communities. A massive rock and mud slide joined the driving frigid wind and floodwaters to dash the last hope for the colony’s survival. Its northern wall was gone adding to the rising death toll and flood water as the temperature plummeted. Beautiful architecture of the homes was a memory, security breached and most of the winter food supply was already de-stroyed by saltwater. An unimaginable number of lives and hours of labor became meaningless in one wintery tempest. An inspired community was now drowning in what seemed to be the complete destruction of the Apiary community.
During this time, the two men continued to fight for their lives. Marcus prayed vehemently for himself, his father and for his mother even while he fought the storm and his fears. I hoped she has evacuated the fishing hut and has gone to higher ground. The great intensity of the storm made him wonder if his fishing village would sur-vive. His thoughts were interrupted by the relentless wind driving their small boat aground onto an outcropping of rock and then struck them again with a twenty foot wave throwing their boat high above the normal water line. A now stunned son managed to scream, “Father, where are you?” The boat crashed so hard that it was a rhetorical question not expecting an answer. Otherwise, no human voice could be heard over the roaring wind and crashing surf. He could not even hear himself scream and yet surprised to be alive and unbroken.
Cold and wet, he found himself on solid ground, but his survival was doubtful because hypothermia was already ebbing away at his life. “God of Abraham and Jacob, save me. Only you can save me now Lord. Fill me with your strength Lord! El Shaddai, where are you?” (Poor boy, who do you think placed your feet on solid ground?)
He continued to pray and climb the slippery slope and away from the angry sea with renewed post-prayer-energy until his legs slipped out from under him. He was up and then down in the same moment with a thud, think-ing, `This is it. I am going to die right here. Only God can save me now.’
Within that fallen moment, he surprisingly landed softly facedown into an otherwise hard and rocky slope. He had fallen into the one soft thing on earth that could possibly save his life. When all seemed lost, the apiary community was also suddenly saved as a human collapsed and fell on top of it. A large honey comb filled with squirming larva became glued to his face.
His mind flashed back to what he remembered as his mother’s meanest words ever spoken to him. In ret-rospect, they were lifesaving words that only seemed to be angry at the time, “Be a man and eat it. It is the essence of life that could save your life someday.” Marcus thought, `well, at least the fish eggs did not squirm.’ Without any further hesitation; wax, honey, several bees, larva sprinkled with sand, all proved to be a tasty lifesaving meal full of sugar and protein while his relatively warm body covered the beehive, including its broken northern wall.
He had cried out to the one true God and received renewed strength. Without knowing it, he had just lived a prom-ise from God that strength would be given to those who hope in the Lord.