Saturday 3 January, 2015

16 When evening came, Jesus’ disciples went down to the Sea of Galilee. 17 There they got into a boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum. By now it was dark. Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing, and the water became rough. 19 They rowed three or three and a half miles. Then they saw Jesus coming toward the boat. He was walking on the water. They were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they agreed to take him into the boat. Right away the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

Here is Jesus’ team of people. Jesus has wandered away to be by himself after feeding the 5000. The team is waiting. They don’t know where He has gone or when exactly He will be back. They decide to head off to their next stop without Him. That is a bit weird really given that they were following Him. That sort of means you should wait for the lead guy to come back. They didn’t go looking for Him and it doesn’t look like they left a message for Him so He would know where they went. Maybe they thought He had left them behind and He was off to the next stop by some other means of transport.

How often do we think God has been distracted or that He found someone or something that was more important than us and that He didn’t have time to tell us to hang in there, He would be back in a minute? It’s easy to go to that place, especially if we are not good at waiting, at patience. Instead we try and figure out the next step and just get on with it.

What happens next for the disciples? Firstly things get worse – a storm starts up while they are in a boat on a very large lake. That is no fun.

So they have had a day where they saw Jesus feed 5000 people miraculously.  Then they lost sight of Jesus as He was mobbed, then they waited for Him but He didn’t show, then they were in a boat in the middle of a storm. A confusing day to say the least!

Then Jesus walks across the water to reach them. He was never so far away that He didn’t know what was going on and He always had a plan to reach His team even when they didn’t trust Him.

Thank you Lord that even when we are being quite slow to get what You are saying to us You keep speaking to us, You are still beside us and You still have a plan to reach us. Help us to not head off on our own. Help us to be patient and wait for You to let us know where to next.

Written by Therese Manning