Walking on Water

Walking On Water

And he said, Come.  And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked

on the water, to go to Jesus.  But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.  

                                                         

                                                                                 --Matthew 14:29-30

Cheboygan, Michigan’s’ Lake Mullet sparkled with an appearance of glitter over the skirt of the body of water.  Crisp early June mornings are my favorite times on the lake.  The quiet spring hours seem almost noisy with crickets, Katie-dids, and frogs harmonizing in natures’ Hallelujah chorus.  It took my breath away at times, watching the baby mallard ducks swim in a row frantically trying to keep up with Momma Mallard.

The light waves brush against the shore where footprints of yesterdays’ activities were slowly being washed away.  Evidence of play still remained with little rock piles around, treasures of an innocent child.  Our children and I skipped rocks with their Dad trying to out do the other in the amount of skips over the top of the water.

 Skipping stones is the biggest challenge of the day on this wonderful vacation.  But in the attempt to skip the stones, the children throw pretty wild; the ducks run for cover and fish find refuge far away from the shore.  Robert is sure his sister is trying to wipe him off the face of the earth, and vice versa.  When one of us is successful in skipping the stones at least five times, accomplishment is felt.

Peter felt accomplishment only after feeling what it was to fail, denying Jesus, three times.  Peter at this time now feels the accomplishment of walking on the water, which is impossible without Jesus.  Peter starts to plummet to the bottom of the lake, when he began to take his eyes off his Savior.  He then fixed his eyes on Jesus accepting the intimidating storm around him, and rose up to face the Savior, the one who controls the storms.

Peter forgot the storms even belong to Jesus.  While the disciples were frightened, they still didn’t realize God kept them from the full fury of the storm.  Gods’ full fury will be felt one day on this old world, so fix your eyes on Jesus.  “Peter began to sink,” this is not “Peter sank.”

There is hope for you who feel you are going under.  Keep your eyes on the Master and like the stones, you will skip more gracefully across the rough waters.  The rough waters will seem more like the passing of a speedboat, then a tidal wave.