Walking on Water

Since coming home from hospital after receiving the brain tumour diagnosis, for some reason I started thinking about Jesus walking on the water. The story is given in Mark (6, 45 -52), John (6, 16 -21) and Matthew (14, 22-33), and each account fills in the details to give the whole story. This amazing supernatural feat (no pun intended) comes just after Jesus feeds the 5 thousand. Jesus sends the disciples on their way across the lake while he goes off to have some quiet time with God. While they're in the boat, a strong wind comes up, and they struggle to row. This goes on for hours, as Jesus comes to them before sun-up (4th watch?) - He just walks over on the water, which must be extremely choppy because of the wind. The curious thing is that if they hadn't seen Him and cried out (in fear that they were seeing a ghost) He would have walked on by - no doubt to the other shore, to meet them there when they arrived, but when they cried out, He went to them, with a hearty "'cheer up, don't be afraid, it's only me!"  Stunning! Bet they just dropped their oars along with their jaws.

Peter, the eager, enthusiastic, blows hot and cold one, climbs out of the boat and walks towards Jesus. Then he realises he's walking on water too, and his mind says 'hang on this can't be! it's against nature!' so he sinks. Having lost his faith in Jesus, he puts his faith in Nature, and Nature doesn't let him down!

Under he goes. I wonder if it seemed a long time to him before Jesus' hand pulled him out of the water, and into the safety of the boat?

Once Jesus was in the boat, the wind calmed and they rowed easily to shore, where they got on with Jesus' work almost as if nothing amazing had happened. Peter goes on to have faith and control issues as Jesus ministry unfolds. He argues with Jesus about His death, and Jesus tells him he has his mind "on things of man, and not of God" and then when Jesus is arrested, Peter denies him (3 times). Been there, done that. Some of you have been there, are doing that.

However, Jesus never lets Peter go, and Peter becomes the 'cornerstone of the Church' ( read all about it in Acts, and Peter's letters are enormously uplifting and enlightening.) We can let go, but He will never leave us or forsake us.

The chemo side effects make my muscles burn with every movement. Just raising my arms to stretch makes me feel like I've rowed for hours across a windy lake. There's a whole bunch of stuff happening to me and around me that I have no control over, so I have discarded the worry and fretting, and Jesus and I are walking on water.