When the disciples first see the spectral shape hovering over the waters of the Sea of Galilee, they immediately recognize the otherworldliness of the occasion—“ghost” is the only terminology they had, and in such a word, we see their great terror of the supernatural. There is nothing more terrifying for us humans than encountering the supernatural bare-faced!!

But the figure exuding its divinity, claiming mastery over the laws of nature, turns out to be their rabbi—Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth who shared meals and tents with these timorous fishermen. Whatever terror-filled myths we have invented of the wrathful divine is confuted by the reality of this benevolent person, calmly strolling on the water’s surface: it is Jesus of Nazareth, the one who invites us timorous sinners to participate in his own divine life of perfect love.

“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

“Come!”

Peter, full of zeal and desirous to be with the Lord, he is the only one who dares take the fateful first step out of the boat. The barest mite of faith was enough to bring Peter into an utterly new world of wonders. The world of heavenly delights is waiting—we need only take the first step out of the boat: out of the truncated reality we manufacture for safety, out of the provincial mindset of our limited experience, out of the privilege we cling to of keeping a buffered self, out of the prisons of constantly attempting to control our own outcomes. We must take that first step out of the boat and we will find ourselves in the world where existence is pure joy and ebullient love is found everywhere. This is what it means for Peter to walk on the water—he gets to share in the adventurous life of God Himself. But he must be willing to take that first step.

Peter did not know where taking that first step would take him, but he knew the one inviting him onto the waters. After all, when Jesus calls someone, his call is only ever a call to come and live, life at its most abundant.
 
A commission for the Shaw family.