Churning Seas...

Have you ever taken the time to think about the various occurrences that happen in your life each and every day?  About the different people that come across your path as you walk through the store, at work, at church or in all the parking lots that you may traverse?  I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately as I have been studying the story of Jesus walking on the water. Today I switched authors and read from John’s account of the event.  Although they are both very similar, John seems to leave out a few details that Matthew penned.  His version reads:

“In the evening his disciples went down to the sea, got in the boat, and headed back across the water to Capernaum. It had grown quite dark and Jesus had not yet returned.  A huge wind blew up, churning the sea.  They were maybe three or four miles out when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, quite near the boat. They were scared senseless, but he reassured them, ‘It's me. It's all right. Don't be afraid.’  So they took him on board. In no time they reached land—the exact spot they were headed to.” (John 6:16-21 MSG)

A few things immediately caught my attention as I looked at this.  First was the thought of it having “grown quite dark and Jesus had not yet returned.”  It would seem that the disciples were getting more than just a little concerned of their surroundings and of the fact that Jesus was nowhere to be found!  Many of these men were fisherman by trade and most likely could “read” the sounds, sights and feel of the water they were fishing on.  They probably sensed that a negative weather change was coming when the huge wind “blew up” around them.

Have you ever had things seem to “blow up” all around you when you were doing something for the Lord?  I sure have!  Then just as the boat begins to get tossed about, they spot something coming at them… WALKING ON THE WATER!  So, how did these brave fisherman handle the situation?  John says that they were “scared senseless!”  But Jesus wasn’t about to have any of that with His ministerial association team.  He quickly put their greatest fears to rest by calmly declaring to them, “It’s me.  It’s alright.  Don’t be afraid.” 

Well, His comforting words must have worked because the disciples calmed down enough to think straight again and help Jesus into the boat.  Then I love the ending of the story as it continues stating that following this, “In no time they reached land – (at) the exact spot they were heading to.”  John doesn’t say anything about the storm ceasing, just that they quickly got to the other side.  I think from his point of view, they were so happy, and so at peace that he didn’t even notice the positive change in the weather… that by keeping your eyes and your trust on Jesus, you’ll always get where He wants you to go… even in the midst of a storm!

One of the big talking points I received from both Matthew’s and John’s accounts of this event, was that Jesus came to them in the middle of their periling time in the midst of a storm, walking on the very thing that was threatening them!  In his commentary entitled: “Through the Bible Day by Day,” F.B. Meyer said: “He uses the element we dread as the path for His approach. The waves were endangering the boat, but Jesus walked on them. In our lives are people and circumstances we dread, but it is through these that the greatest blessing of our lives will come, if we look through them to Christ.”

The Lord keeps reminding me of all the times over the last ten years, when He sent his emissaries across Piper’s and my path in order to help us in many of the different situations that we found ourselves in at any given moment.  I have mentioned of how we expected to fall right back into to our old lives with the former network of family and friends when we returned after attending Bible School in Oklahoma.  But like I stated, it just didn’t happen as planned.

What actually happened thoroughly surprised us.  When some within the old network had a difficult time adjusting to Piper’s health changes, other casual friends and relatives outside of our daily level of interaction, as well as complete strangers seemed to come out of the woodwork when we needed them the most!  And you know… the same thing has continued out here, some 3000 miles away from our hometown in California.

Through the many revelations I’ve been receiving from the various accounts of the story of Jesus walking on the water, I am coming to understand that in many ways, all these different people and events that have positively happened to us are examples of Jesus walking on the water in the midst of the “churning” of the sea!  I am not sure if some of these folks were angels in disguise, or just individuals that were open to be used of the Lord to assist us… or if it was Jesus Himself, but these helpful incidents just keep happening to us!

A couple of weeks ago as I was getting ready to lift Piper from her chair in the parking lot and place her back into the car at our CVS pharmacy in Fuquay Varina, an older Hispanic man who had been nonchalantly leaning next to a car across from us, suddenly became aware of our presence and quickly jogged up to us and held Piper chair for me.  Now, I never mentioned that I had previously locked the wheels on the chair so that it wasn’t going to go anywhere, but I just went ahead and picked up my wife and set her in the front passenger seat.  I thanked the man profusely for his help, but he never said a word!  He just gave me a nod and went back to his car.

Last week we took our pooch to the Vet and as I was getting ready to lift Piper out of the car in the parking lot, the side door of the Vet’s office opens up and two of their techs came out and up to us asking if they could help by taking care of Fiver while I moved Piper!  As I thought about that event on the way home after the appointment, I mentioned to Piper that the handicap parking place is not visible from the windows of the Vet’s office… so how did they know we were out there?

Like I said… this happens over and over again.  In one of our “darker” moments, when we were leaving the hospital after Piper’s two day emergency stay there back at the end of December, the young doctor who had been attending Piper during her stay, walked us out, along with one of the nurses to our car and assisted me as I got my weak little wife into the car.  Then she stood there in the cold and talked to me for a while, giving me all kinds of friendly and knowledgeable comfort and advice as to what we could expect from our decision to call in hospice.  We had been to hospitals on many occasions back in our hometown and we were lucky if we saw the various doctors for more than five minutes each time!

So my point?  While I don’t believe that Papa God causes some of the unfortunate things that each of us find ourselves dealing with in this life, I do believe that as long as we keep our eyes and our trust upon Him and His Word, that we’ll discover many occasions when He walks on the water to us in the midst of the darkest times and storms of our lives!

I bet that if take a few moments right now to think about it, you’ll realize that some of the folks you’ve come across are actually some of these God-lead water-walkers… sent to assist you!

Have a great rest of the week, and as you do, keep asking yourself… “Am I really expecting Papa God to send someone across the churning seas that I may find myself in the midst of today?”