In Mt. 14:22-36, Jesus comes to the disciples walking on water. This is an amazing thing; for who can actually walk on water! Peter, ever the one who wants to be just like Jesus, wants to try this out. Jesus encourages him to go on and try; and Peter does. But of course he becomes afraid, and Jesus teaches him that the key to his success is keeping his eyes on Jesus.
I must confess that I have often wondered what the point of this story is, or if perhaps I am stupid. I don’t care about walking on lakes. I enjoy swimming, but the whole walking on water thing just comes across to me as if Peter might have wanted to prove a point. I don’t need to do this. I need faith that gets me through every day, and it has nothing to do with water.
And then I met grief. Horrible, energy-sucking, stomach-kicking grief.
Water.
I needed to rise above it. To walk on it.
The story mattered. Suddenly I felt that I had eyes to see. And my eyes must remain on Jesus, lest I lose the ability to walk on this water of grief.
The water is so deep and so rough! But the Lord promises in Isaiah: “When you walk through the water, I will be with you, and the river will not overflow.”
Praise the Lord, even in the deep water of grief!
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Hello and thank you so much for this post. I needed this.