WALKING ON WATER

Recently in our newspaper that covers the middle section of our state I noticed this headline: PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR TO SPEAK ON WATER. Well, I thought, maybe that means he/she will stand on a bridge and speak to people in the water. Maybe it means the speaker will stand in shallow water and speak to people on the shore. I could see several possibilities to this event of a water speaking author. If there was any possibility the speaker was actually going to stand on top of the water I definitely wanted to be there. I've never seen anyone walk on water in the Galilean sense, I never did it myself and I don't think I'd actually want to be there if I tried, I don't really trust my butterfly stroke. I swim through the water, I stand under the water while showering, and I fly over the water while in an airplane. Walking on water has just never been my thing. Actually doing it in the Galilean sense is called a miracle as in Matthew 14.

Yet the thing is, I've actually seen miracles. Webster defines miracle as, "An extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment." OK, I've never seen anybody walk on the water but I've seen a teenager suddenly, unexpectedly, against the odds, go into remission. That hospital room rose up in one united shout of joy when the news was delivered to the family. Know how many miracles take place every day when someone is cured of alcoholism or drug addiction? IT'S LIKE WALKING ON WATER! I've seen a 3 day old baby undergo surgery for cornea cancer and given sight. I've seen a distraught mother pulled back from the brink of a bridge when overwhelmed with despair, saved by love no less. I've seen a young doctor who might earn $ 400,000 a year in a lucrative practice give his whole life to the poor in the slums of La Paz, Bolivia, his name is Charles Peterson. Whenever I hear someone call it a miracle when Jesus walked on the water I respond, "Absolutely!" When I see or hear of a child being delivered safely in childbirth I say, "A miracle, absolutely!" Jesus affirmed in Matthew 14 that believers can walk on the water. Yes, and when that water is the water of Easter newness, of cleansing, renewing, rising up, overcoming, seizing hope, we truly, honestly, victoriously, walk out into the light of the Easter hope. "Come to me," Jesus said to Peter, "Walk with me here where it’s deep and uncertain." No, not to a rose garden, just a daily walk to life's beauty in the Easter Promise.