Walking on water

So, I always knew and I firmly believe that God can do any­thing — absolutely any­thing — that He wants to do, includ­ing, but not lim­ited to, walk­ing on water.  Fur­ther­more, He can have oth­ers join Him there.  How­ever, I con­sid­ered this mir­a­cle a lit­tle closer today, and found that there could be a lot more in this story than many peo­ple see at face value.  I’ll tell you up front that I thought of many of these ideas myself today, which is why I’m tak­ing the lib­erty to write them down, but the same things were actu­ally vocal­ized by my adopted par­ents (great minds think alike, eh?), so I can’t take all of the credit.  Here goes:

Matthew 14:22. And straight­way Jesus con­strained his dis­ci­ples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the mul­ti­tudes away.

Vs 23. And when he had sent the mul­ti­tudes away, he went up into a moun­tain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

Vs 24. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

Vs 25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walk­ing on the sea.

Stop.  Rewind.  Play.  Walk­ing on the sea?  In the storm?  Well, if any­one can do it, I’d vote that God can.  Let’s keep going, the excit­ing part is yet to come.

Vs 26. And when the dis­ci­ples saw him walk­ing on the sea, they were trou­bled, say­ing, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

Yeah — hur­ri­cane like storm con­di­tions, wood boat, I’d be cry­ing out for fear, too.  And a ghost on the water on top of that!  Let’s get out of here!

Vs 27. But straight­way Jesus spake unto them, say­ing, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

Thank you, Lord.  Now I feel much bet­ter.  Can we do some­thing about the storm?

Vs 28. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

Ah.  As much as I’d love to come out there and walk in the hurricane-force winds and bounce around on the water, Lord, I think I need a lit­tle more assur­ance that it’s really you.  I can trust you, God, but you have to help me know for sure that it’s really you out there call­ing me!  There is a dif­fer­ence between fool­ish­ness and faith — I’ll have faith if you’ll promise me that we’ll be OK.

Vs 29. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

OK.  It’s you, God.  I’m on the way!  You can almost hear the con­fi­dence in Jesus’ voice as he sim­ply says, “Come.”  There was no sec­ond guess­ing or waver­ing.  Sim­ply — “come.”

Vs 30. But when he saw the wind bois­ter­ous, he was afraid; and begin­ning to sink, he cried, say­ing, Lord, save me.

Pause.  Step one, trust God.  Step two, fol­low God.  Step three, don’t look down.  I’d like to think that once I had the faith to get out of the boat, that I’d be able to make it to where God is — but per­haps the jour­ney is tougher than we think.  Here’s a thought:  Peter had time to say all three words, “Lord, save me.”  When was the last time you stepped into a pool (not div­ing or jump­ing, just stepped) and had time to utter three sim­ple words before your head goes under­wa­ter?  I think Peter did not loose faith entirely, but just lost sight of the goal.  This is very sim­i­lar to our Chris­t­ian lives.  We start to lose sight, and when it’s almost too late, we cry for help.  Let’s not stop here — press­ing on.

Vs 31. And imme­di­ately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of lit­tle faith, where­fore didst thou doubt?

Peter, why did you take your eyes off of me?  I’m in con­trol of every­thing.  The wind and the seas obey my com­mand.  I bid you to come unto me, I would not hurt you.  I love my almighty God.  With Him, noth­ing is impos­si­ble.  His tim­ing is impec­ca­ble, too.  Notice how He imme­di­ately stretched forth His hand to catch Peter.  No lec­ture, no foot tap­ping, just instant for­give­ness and assistance.

Vs 32. And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

Here’s a gray area with an alter­nate end­ing.  I won­der how this hap­pened.  Did Jesus and Peter just appear on the boat?  God could do it, but would it suit His pur­pose?  I think God took His time and walked back to the boat, on the water, with Peter and his renewed faith.  Isn’t it won­der­ful when Christ lifts us up from the miry clay and then con­tin­ues to walk with us as if the prob­lem had never occured?  His love is extravagant.

Vs 33. Then they that were in the ship came and wor­shipped him, say­ing, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

I guess it takes a lit­tle more to show some peo­ple who to believe.  Thank you Lord, for bring­ing this thought to mind, give me faith like Peter.