HE WALKS IN WATER
Wednesday after Epiphany
My dear encountered couples:
The apostles were terrified. Were they going to drown? Then they thought they saw a ghost. Were their minds playing tricks on them? Something was coming on the water towards them in the dark, and threatening them - so they thought. But it was only their friend Jesus. And there was certainly no reason to be afraid of him. When he stepped into their boat everything was fine, back to normal. No more fear, they relaxed, probably even had themselves a good laugh over it.
Do you feel like laughing? Or do you have something ahead of you today that you’re not looking forward to doing? Is there something you are dreading but can’t see any possibility of avoiding? A test, an interview, an operation, the dentist? Oh, if only this day were over! But it isn’t. Ahead of you looms something you must face which seems as impossible to you as somebody walking on water.
We often build up fears that are products of our minds. We imagine the worst and get ourselves all worked up. But after we’ve once undergone what we dreaded and managed to get through alive, we might wonder what we were so scared about. Somehow we made it. Somehow we got ourselves through the impossible and came out unscathed. We might say we walked on water. But how?
Because God was already in the thing we dreaded. Jesus was already there paving the way for us. Heaven foresaw our futures and went to work arranging things so we could handle them. Jesus makes the impossible possible for us; he walks on water and makes it possible for us to do the same. Just don’t try it without him. If you do you had better be a darn good swimmer.
