“And in the fourth watch of the night he [Jesus] came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”” (Matthew 14:25–27, ESV)
So often, we mistake things God is doing for something else. When God does something special, one person calls it a coincidence while another calls it good luck. God makes a miracle of healing happen and a person without spiritual insight thanks a doctor or modern medicine. A person left adrift on the sea is spared, even though there were hundreds of ways for the person to die. A newspaper calls it a miracle without giving God any credit. A family member calls the man a strong survivor and chalks it up to the man’s inner strength, without even considering that God had a hand in his being spared.
There are so many times people in this world don’t see God, mistake a turn of events as blind luck, or see a blessing as something earned or deserved. God performs miracles constantly and people do not have the spiritual insight nor perspective to see the work of God as anything other than a worldly event. After a good turn of events, a superstitious woman might chalk the thing up to good karma, owe it to the horoscope of the day, or believe her stars aligned perfectly. A man wins a special event and gives credence to his “lucky shirt” for the good fortune. He does not even perceive that God caused the win to occur that day for a special reason.
Even in scripture, there are times when godly people missed God’s intervention. Take for example the scripture reading for today’s meditation. In it, the disciples are caught battling a storm all night. Then, long into the night, almost nearing daybreak, they see something eerie. The disciples looked over the rough seas and saw what appeared to be Jesus walking on the sea toward them. Matthew 14:26 mentions that the disciples “were terrified”, thinking they were seeing “a ghost”! Only a few moments later when they heard Jesus say “It is I. Have no fear!” did they realize the Savior had arrived (Matthew 14:27). How could they mistake Jesus for a ghost?
People make mistakes all the time. Even those who know God make mistakes. Even spiritually, they mistake the action of God for something else. They should know better but they miss the point of God’s action. When Jesus walked on the water to the disciples, He came to save them. The disciples had fought rough seas all night. They were exhausted. They were filled with fear already from fighting the wind and waves. Death seemed imminent. Then, Jesus came to save them. And what do they do? They mistake Jesus for a ghost!
If you read between the lines of this scripture, you might see that that when the disciples were filled with the strong emotion of fear, they mistook Jesus for a ghost. As often happens, emotions like fear and worry and love and lust and greed cause people to mistake God’s works each and every day. The stronger the emotion, the more you miss seeing the work of God’s hand. The more you are caught up in the moment, the more of God’s works will elude your spiritual insight. All in all, emotions can easily blind your spiritual “eyes”, keeping you from seeing God’s hand and hearing God’s voice.
It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea.
But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life. Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. for nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long. But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, “Cherry,” that was the B-17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, “read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off.”
Now this is still Captain Rickenbacker talking...”Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it.
And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness. (“The Old Man and the Gulls” from Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt, 1977, quoted in Heaven Bound Living, Knofel Stanton, Standard, 1989, pp. 79-80)
The disciples mistook Jesus for a ghost. Eddie Rickenbacker did not mistake that sea gull for the blessing that it was. He knew it was a miracle that the gull landed on their boat. He knew it was a gift from God. Some people have a spiritual insight to see God’s handiwork. Some are so filled with emotions that they misinterpret the blessing or the miracle or the hand of God.
I wonder how much you’ll see with your spiritual “eyes” in the next few days. I wonder if you’ll notice God’s big and little miracles or blessings. I wonder if you’ll give credit for God’s saving grace.
There are so many times people in this world don’t see God, mistake a turn of events as blind luck, or see a blessing as something earned or deserved. God performs miracles constantly and people do not have the spiritual insight nor perspective to see the work of God as anything other than a worldly event. After a good turn of events, a superstitious woman might chalk the thing up to good karma, owe it to the horoscope of the day, or believe her stars aligned perfectly. A man wins a special event and gives credence to his “lucky shirt” for the good fortune. He does not even perceive that God caused the win to occur that day for a special reason.
Even in scripture, there are times when godly people missed God’s intervention. Take for example the scripture reading for today’s meditation. In it, the disciples are caught battling a storm all night. Then, long into the night, almost nearing daybreak, they see something eerie. The disciples looked over the rough seas and saw what appeared to be Jesus walking on the sea toward them. Matthew 14:26 mentions that the disciples “were terrified”, thinking they were seeing “a ghost”! Only a few moments later when they heard Jesus say “It is I. Have no fear!” did they realize the Savior had arrived (Matthew 14:27). How could they mistake Jesus for a ghost?
People make mistakes all the time. Even those who know God make mistakes. Even spiritually, they mistake the action of God for something else. They should know better but they miss the point of God’s action. When Jesus walked on the water to the disciples, He came to save them. The disciples had fought rough seas all night. They were exhausted. They were filled with fear already from fighting the wind and waves. Death seemed imminent. Then, Jesus came to save them. And what do they do? They mistake Jesus for a ghost!
If you read between the lines of this scripture, you might see that that when the disciples were filled with the strong emotion of fear, they mistook Jesus for a ghost. As often happens, emotions like fear and worry and love and lust and greed cause people to mistake God’s works each and every day. The stronger the emotion, the more you miss seeing the work of God’s hand. The more you are caught up in the moment, the more of God’s works will elude your spiritual insight. All in all, emotions can easily blind your spiritual “eyes”, keeping you from seeing God’s hand and hearing God’s voice.
It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea.
But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life. Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. for nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long. But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, “Cherry,” that was the B-17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, “read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off.”
Now this is still Captain Rickenbacker talking...”Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it.
And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness. (“The Old Man and the Gulls” from Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt, 1977, quoted in Heaven Bound Living, Knofel Stanton, Standard, 1989, pp. 79-80)
The disciples mistook Jesus for a ghost. Eddie Rickenbacker did not mistake that sea gull for the blessing that it was. He knew it was a miracle that the gull landed on their boat. He knew it was a gift from God. Some people have a spiritual insight to see God’s handiwork. Some are so filled with emotions that they misinterpret the blessing or the miracle or the hand of God.
I wonder how much you’ll see with your spiritual “eyes” in the next few days. I wonder if you’ll notice God’s big and little miracles or blessings. I wonder if you’ll give credit for God’s saving grace.