Take The Sun Glasses Off

One of my favorite miracles in the gospel is the one where Jesus walks on water. The most descriptive account is in Matthew chapter 14, verses 22-32. I used to read this story and say “Oh that was cool, imagine seeing that,” but I reflected on it very little, but now I look at it and see it in a different light. To understand where I am going with this you’ll need to imagine yourself in the disciple’s place. Imagine you are in a medium sized sail boat, at night, in a huge storm. You try to sail and row to shore, but the wind and the waves are slamming into the boat, you remember how Jesus calmed the storm and you wonder where He is. Suddenly you see a man walking on the water towards you, walking over the waves as if they were flat ground. The man yells out to you that He is Jesus, and one of the men in the boat steps out and walks towards Him, but once he sees the wind and waves he starts to sink! Jesus then grabs him out of the water and gets in the boat and immediately the storm stops. Well now that I got your attention (you can stop imagining now) I can go on. I sometimes think of the world as a pair of sunglasses to our “faith vision”. The troubles of the world, sin, suffering, money, war, the list goes on and on- they all cloud our view of Christ, they dim His light in our lives. The same thing happened to Peter- the man who got out of the boat. Peter had his eyes on Jesus, He was focused and ready, he wanted to live for his Master. Peter in an act of great faith got out of the boat (imagine getting out of a boat at night during a storm), and walked towards Jesus, but when Peter saw the wind and waves, the troubles of the world, the distractions that block our view of God, he fell through the water. Peter didn’t fall because he simply didn’t believe. He fell because he wasn’t focused on Jesus, he looked at the waves and realized what he was doing, he didn’t trust the love of God and the world dimmed his vision so much that doubt crept into his heart and he fell through the water. When we set our eyes on Jesus, when we wake up and live for Him, nothing can stop us; nothing can separate us from His love. But when we put our “sun glasses” on, we fail to see our savior in our world, we lose sight and begin to fall, and we doubt His love and protection. Though there is chaos and confusion in the world, though there is sin and suffering, we can’t let that dim our vision of the light of Jesus.