Were We Meant to Walk on Water? My Thoughts for Today

I have been teaching a Bible study on the Book of Esther to my former church members in Tennessee, through Zoom on Wednesday nights. Yes, I retired, but the teaching bug will not let go of its grip on me.

When asked my former pastor to do a Bible study with just about five days notice, I at first wanted to say no. But, I really needed the interaction and had a desire to teach a book of the Bible that many people skip over.

This week will be the last week of a four-week study on Esther: Living a Life that God Can Use. Thankfully, I had already been thinking on this book and had outlined how I would teach it, if I were ever given the chance.

But, I don’t think of it as a coincidence that I planned it and then was given the opportunity to teach it. For me, coincidences represent God in the invisble realm of His glory working behind the scenes in the visible realm of the land of the living.

During the research for the Bible study, I started to wonder if the first humans were created with the ability to do what seems impossible to us today. When I read of Peter walking on water with Jesus before he became focused on the winds and started to fall, I questioned if walking on water were meant to be a human trait? After all, Jesus asked Peter why he started to doubt.

Can you imagine the places you would go, if you didn’t have to deal with airports and TSA agents, and unruly passengers who think that both armrest belong to them? Wouldn’t it be lovely to walk acoss the world, taking the ocean as a shortcut? I don’t mean to be facetious or disrespectful!

And were we meant to talk to mountains and make them move, as Jesus suggested we could with just a mustard seed of faith? Could we overcome the doubts of thousands of years? I don’t know.

But, I have seen what faith can accomplish, having went from extreme poverty as a child, once being so hungry that I stole chicken gizzards from a neighbor’s house, to living well in retirement. In a way, you could say that I have walked on water, because I stepped out on faith in God to keep His promises, even when people called me insane for doing so. I have reached goals and traveled to places that others never expected that I could or would.

In these days of tremendous challenges, when it can be difficult to see how we can contain the virus in America or find common ground on politial issues or heal the racial divisions, I think we need to believe that we can walk on water, and can achieve what seems impossible. I just believe that as human beings, we were created with all that we need in our hearts, minds, and spirits to make the world a better place to live.

These are my thoughts for today.