The first time I saw him, he was peering up at the big blue sky through a telescope taller than him. He couldn't have been more than ten years old. His shiny skin was so dark, that his white, little eyes just gazed out at me when I rode up on my bike. I was very curious as to what he was looking at. So, I asked, and he responded, “the moon.” As my wife would say at that moment, “He looked so cute, I could have gobbled him up.” Not only did he peer through his telescope, he also loved to look for birds through his binoculars. What an energetic and inquisitive little boy. His name was Jonah, and I later found out from his mother that he was adopted from Ethiopia while she was working in the Peace Corps.
Jonah had been so severely treated as a child in his country that he now deals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To complicate matters, he was also diagnosed with autism. As his mother shared their story with me, I could tell it was not an easy life for a single mother raising a child that looked and acted so differently than other children in our little town. After giving her my card with my painting of the Sacred Heart on it, I invited her and Jonah not only to see my art but that of a local renowned artist that painted birds and other animals. Jonah’s mother told me about the unfamiliarity of children in my own community with a boy like Jonah was devastating. The children said things to Jonah that were just not true, thus treating him differently in a way that was at times mean and even hurtful. I had been a substitute teacher at the school Jonah attended. Both my children went there, and I had tremendous respect for the principle and teachers. I couldn’t believe that Jonah was treated so poorly and gotten bullied by one of the other students. As a parent, we try to protect our child to deal with the storms in their life. I later found out that his mother was taking Jonah to an art therapy program to help with his PTSD. It’s a place where he could work through his trauma. I have never attended an art therapy program, but I learned that my art was a way for me to work through the toughest times of my life.
Unfortunately, after seeing Jonah a few more times, I learned that they were moving. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. It seemed to me that Johah’s mother was running from a community where they felt out of place. I did offer a second time for them to see the paintings on display in my basement and got a polite “no.” I will miss Jonah and the excitement he brought to the neighborhood.
When Jonah and his mother moved on, I started to question what God was trying to tell me. Jonah was the first boy I met with that name, and he had a huge impact on me. The innocent child on the street corner had me thinking about my life. Was this God’s way of having me find out more about the story of Jonah and the Whale--a story where God’s compassion and love has no boundaries--a story of how even a prophet in the day ran from God. Was Jonah’s mother running from God? It sure felt like it to me. Would it have to take a whale for her to trust in God, or would she still be angry keeping her from the love of God and that would affect how Jonah lives his life?
Inside a whale?
When most people hear the story of Jonah, their first thought is that of Jonah living inside a whale. After recently reading it again, I believe for years that I might have been all wrong. What if the whale wasn't the most important part of Jonah’s journey? What if it was about the storm that hit the ship Jonah was on? Maybe I didn’t realize before that for Jonah to be saved by the whale and taken to Nineveh, there had to be a storm.
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. Jonah 1-4 KJV
It’s the Great Storm!
In Old Testament scripture, it reads that Jonah knew that his Lord had sent the storm. As we all typically do when a storm comes, we either start to pray to our God, or we question Him. What if I did both with the question “Lord what is it that you want me to learn here? What’s your will for me?” Rather than telling God in a prayer what I wanted, I first had to find out what He wanted.
So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Jonah 1: 15-16 KJV
Both Jonah and the sailors now turned to the same God. Yet God, a loving and forgiving God, had Jonah thrown overboard to save his enemy. At the beginning of the story, Jonah ran away to hide from God. What did God do? He pursued Jonah and to get his attention, God sent a storm. When I look at the storms in my life, it really makes me question myself as to how I should react when they hit me? Do I get angry with God, or do I somehow look at it as a future blessing with a little sacrifice mixed in? Would I have the same encounter as Jonah? Jumping in the middle of the ocean is no doubt a death sentence for anyone in those days. So, what’s the lesson that God is teaching me? I believe it was not to turn and run from God but to stop, wait and listen to what He’s telling me. God told me to treat my enemies with His love even in the face of adversity--even in my time of anger. If people are going to believe me, what I say about my life should reflect a legitimacy and trust that only God can supply. I can’t control what other people do; I can only control what I do. I need to walk the walk and not talk the talk.
Here are a few simple steps that I learned from reading the story of Jonah in the Bible that helped me:
Step 1: Turn Away From Sin - Repent
And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying " Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. Jonah 3:1-5 KJV
Step 2: You Can’t Be Angry at God
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, “I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this what I said when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Then said the Lord, “Why are you angry?”
So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad for the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd so that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, so that he grew faint and wished in himself to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, “Doest thou well to be angry over the gourd?” And he said, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” Then said the Lord, “Thou hast had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many cattle?” Jonah 4:1-11 KJV
Was it that Jonah’s anger at God’s compassion for the Gentiles was clouded by His own prejudices? Was that also true for me and little Jonah’s mother? I now know how God feels when my anger gets in the way. But how could I be angry at Jonah’s mother? We both are like the Jonah of the Bible. His anger is misdirected at something like a plant rather than at all the children of God.
Step 3: See Everyone as God sees Them
And Jonah learned that men and women and little children, are all precious in the sight of the Lord, even though they don’t know God. Jonah is a story with anger, compassion, confession, repentance, sacrifice, faithfulness, forgiveness and ultimately, love--a story that we all can learn from! I now try every day to see my enemies through the eyes of God.
Are you ready for your next lesson (or should I say storm)?
LESSONS FROM JONAH - Lessons From Jonah (truthmagazine.com)
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