On this day in 1888, the most famous storm in American history began.

No one saw it coming. The previous day the weather had been unusually warm. The predictions were for fair weather. Then on the afternoon of March 11, light snow began to fall. Two days later, the northeast was buried in 46.7 inches of snow.

At the time, the Blizzard of 1888 was called the “worst storm in living memory,” and it still holds the distinction of the worst winter storm on record in many areas of the northeast. The blizzard also had a long-reaching impact. The U.S. Weather Service Bureau was created to help better predict the weather, and cities began taking responsibility for snow removal.

Storms have a way of bringing our lives to a standstill. While we have better ways today of tracking and predicting storms, we often don’t know where they will hit or how severe they will be.

Remember the disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee? There they were, in the middle of the lake, when an unpredictable storm caught them off-guard. They feared for their lives as they struggled to keep their boat afloat. And where was Jesus? Sleeping in the back of the boat. When the panicked disciples woke him up, Jesus rebuked the raging seas and the whipping winds. In an instant, the storm stopped. Then Jesus turned to his friends and said, “Where is your faith?”

Life’s storms are like that, too. Whether you are faced with attending a new school, dealing with an illness in your family, or coping with an unexpected loss, remember Jesus’ words. In the midst of the storm, we need to remember that Jesus is with us and that he can calm whatever storm we are facing.

“Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him” (Luke 8:25, New International Version).

To Do

What unexpected “storm” has taken you by surprise? Based on what you just read, write down three ways you can weather this storm.

Also on this day . . .

Today is Johnny Appleseed Day.

1969—Levi-Strauss started selling bell-bottomed jeans.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.