Walking on Water

(If they decide to walk on water they've got their life jackets)

Today's Gospel presents one of my favorite pictures: Peter getting out of the boat and walking toward Jesus on the water.

Wow. Amazing. This shouldn't be possible. But he's doing it. And then just as suddenly he looks around notices the waves and the wind and realizes that he shouldn't be doing it.

And then... he's not. He's sinking.

And he reaches out to Jesus and asks for help.

And Jesus provides it.

So the lesson, short and sweet is trust in the Lord in all things - and don't be afraid to ask for help.

On a side note I remember when we were kids playing in our backyard pool and we would try to walk on water. It was from the Bugs Bunny school of walking in air. We would get a running start and run right over the edge of the pool to see how long we could keep "running" before we landed in the water. Maybe a step - if our legs were really fast - maybe two.

We never successfully walked on water. We didn't really expect to.

And maybe that's the difference. Trusting in the Lord means expecting things to happen. When Peter stopped expecting to be able to walk on the water - he stopped being able to walk on the water. And when he called out for help - Jesus didn't make him able to walk on water again. Jesus pulled him out of the water and helped him to the boat.

And as one final thought there is the book title I love (haven't read the book - but think it's a great title) "If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out of the Boat"*

We'll call this one "If you want to take a boat ride you need to get into the water"

*by John Ostberg
**pictures from last years adventure to Uncle Andy's Cabin