For the past two Sundays K.J. and I have gathered with Noreen in her upstairs TV room to join a Zoom call, live at EIC Rueil, which has just resumed meeting with limited seating. We sing and listen to the sermon and get to take part in a breakout group with other people watching online to discuss the message. The first Sunday we did this Parker preached about trusting God in these uncertain times from Matthew 6. In talking about faith at one point he made a reference to Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water toward Jesus, who was Himself walking on the water toward the boat carrying his disciples. This reference immediately reminded me of a song I used to love that was on one of those WOW compilation CDs from the Christian music world of my teenage years. I immediately opened the Spotify app on my phone and searched “Strolling on the Water.”
A song by Bryan Duncan came up, but since I didn’t want to
disturb Noreen and K.J. as we listened to the sermon I couldn’t press play yet
to confirm that was the song I was thinking of.
I forgot all about it until two days later.
My song title search was still pulled up when I opened the app. I pressed play, and I was immediately 19-years-old again, cruising down I-65 South, thrilled by the images the words of this song evoked in my soul. Music has that effect on you.
For some reason the combination of these words and the music paint such a clear mental picture of Jesus, Creator God clothed in flesh, walking on that stormy sea of Galilee with joy, confidence, and strength, because He made this water, created out of His own abundance this entire spinning globe, and He stepped out of eternity, took on our frail skin and bones, and this was it. This was His time. He lived and grew in obscurity, and now He was putting into motion His plan to save the world. And it all started with revealing the power obscured by his humanity to this motley group of men, rowing against the wind on the Sea of Galilee.
I imagine He loved the moments He could reveal who He really was. He had great suffering to walk through at the end of His earthly journey, but in this moment, He walked in power atop water, defying the rules of buoyancy He’d created. I love this picture of Jesus, and I love what He’s calling Peter to do. He honors the desire that wells up in Peter to join Him, and says, “Come on!”
Some may find it hard to believe in a happy God, but my mental picture of Jesus in this moment exudes happiness and joy. He was happy despite the unimaginable suffering that awaited Him at the end of His life, because He owned all this. This was all His Father’s plan. History has been written, but He’s invited us to follow His example in stepping into it, in taking our part in the story.
Wouldn’t you be happy if you knew the end from the beginning, had
planned it all out in intricate detail, from every sparrow to every king, to
every good ruler and corrupt government, to planning where each person would
live and when? I would be happy if I was in charge, if I were big enough and good enough to manage this world.
But since I'm decidedly not either one of those things, it makes me happy to belong to the one who knows the whole story, planned it all out in intricate detail, knows every small, ordinary person, and put in place every leader we like and don’t like to accomplish His plan. He knows where you are, all the places you’re afraid, and He invites you to trust Him, to believe what He says in His word about who He is and what He’s done. He walks on the water and says, "Have courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
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