Water is still wet!

In his book, The Shack, William Young tells the story of a man named Mack who spends a weekend with God in a shack in the wilderness, sorting out the tremendous pain that a devastating loss has brought into his life.

In one very poignant scene, Mack takes a walk with Jesus, who suggests that the quickest way to get to where they’re headed is to walk, not around the lake at the foot of the hill, but across it…on top of the water. At first, Mack is skeptical, but then he remembers “If Peter could do it…why not me?” Before he takes his first faith-filled step, Mack has one important question for Jesus. He asks: “Will my feet get wet?” Jesus tells him: “Of course, water is still wet.”

Maybe this was Peter’s problem when Jesus invites him to walk on water. (Matthew 14:22-33) Even though he gets over the shock of seeing someone walking on water, even though he establishes that it is not a ghost standing in front of him, and even though he decided to take that first faith-filled step…he forgot: water is still wet!

Maybe that’s what happened. Maybe this is why he’s distracted, startled, and becomes fearful. He steps on to the surface of the water and his feet get soaked. He takes a few steps and the sea sloshes beneath him. He walks over to Jesus, and standing on the water, those first waves crash around his feet, and soak his shins, he becomes worried…he loses focus on Jesus…he starts to sink. Maybe he thought that because he was walking on water, that the waves and the wind would become less real…that they would lose their power over him…but he learns: no matter what…water is still wet!

God loves to make the impossible possible. In the Bible this looks like Peter walking on water, Jesus changing water into wine, and five loaves and two fish feeding thousands until they can’t eat another bite.

God makes the impossible possible for you and I, but in our lives the miracles are often more subtle. After a devastating loss, somehow we pick up the pieces and move on with God’s help. When life becomes difficult, when waves crash and the wind is in your face, God shows up and helps you keep going. When life becomes uncertain, God is there to stand beside you.

God makes the impossible possible, and yet we sometimes still make the same mistake that Peter made. How often do you and I forget that the water is still wet? God helps us through the pain, but the pain still stings….because pain hurts. God gets us through the storm, but the waves still crash on our little boat and soak us to the bone…because that’s what waves do. God helps us live in uncertain times, but our heart still races, our mind still wanders, and our breath sometimes gets taken away, because that’s what fear does to us.

What if the miracle is not that God comes to our side, walking across the water to our boat, and the storms clear out? What if the real miracle isn’t when God takes us by the hand and at once the pain disappears? Could it be that the miraclet is not that God puts his arms around us and the fears dissolve? What if the real the miracle is simply that God comes to us, God takes our hand, and God puts his arms around us? Even though he does these things, often, the waves still crash, the pain still hurts, and the fears still fill our heart…but the miracle is that we are no longer alone in them.

Peter gets out of the boat, I suspect, because he wants to walk with Jesus. Jesus comes down from the mountain, I also suspect, because he wants to walk with us. He isn’t content to sit on the mountaintop while we’re being battered by the waves on the sea below.

When God sees the waves that crash and the winds that blow…when God watches the losses that fill us with pain unfold…when God notices that our hearts are filling up with fear…his first action is to come to wherever we are.

It’s what Jesus did that day for his disciples. It’s what Jesus seems to do all the time. He comes to us out of the safety of heaven, to be with us as we face the waves and the wind. He comes to our side to walk with us through the pain and the loss. He puts his arms around us as we stand in the middle of our greatest fears.

Maybe Peter and the other disciples were so scared when they saw Jesus walking on the water, not because they didn’t recognize him, but because they knew that no one in their right mind would stand where he was standing. Who would get their feet wet, walking into the middle of the storm, just to be with the men whose boat is filling up with water?

Who would walk into the rooms that fill with loss, just to be with someone whose heart is filling up with pain? Who would venture into the fearful places, just to sit with someone whose heart is trembling? Who would do all this? There’s only one person, who in every storm, at every loss, and for every fear, will promise to show up…he’s the same Jesus who came down the mountain and walked on the sea.

He walked through this life, and lived it his way He showed up when the storms raged. He appeared when loved ones died. He came out to be with people whose hearts knew only fear.

Even when the skies darkened over his own life, and the waves of accusation crashed around him, and the winds of rejection blew into his face, he still stuck around. When the pain became real, and the cross was placed on his shoulders, he kept on. Even when he hung there and wondered aloud whether or not he was completely alone, and the fear of death filled his heart, still he stuck around.

The lesson that Jesus himself learned through all of this, is that no matter what happens, God is there when you need him. Jesus may not have felt his presence when he hung on the cross, breathed his last breath, and the darkness began to descend upon him. I’ll guarantee you that he felt it when he opened his eyes , breathed once more, felt the sunshine streaming in through the open door of the tomb!
When that happened, once more he walked out into the world. He walked out of the tomb to be with people who were still feeling the pain of loss, still huddled in fear, and for whom the storm had yet to subside. When he did, he still had the scars, because the pain of death still hurts, but now he knew that God was there, is there, and will always be there when his children need him.

The next time you wonder about whether or not God is around: because the pain seems to be too much, the loss seems to be too strong, and the fears seem to be too real…remember even if you walk on water, you’re still going to get wet. If your shoes are soaked, and the waves are still crashing, it doesn’t mean that God’s not there. Peter found out when he started to sink, sometimes that’s when you and I realize, too.

a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter

“A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.” You remember these words, don’t you? Are they etched in your brain? Do they emerge as you walk the aisles of the supermarket with your shopping list in hand, trying to make sure you don’t forget a single item? If you grew up when I did, or had children who did, then you know these familiar words.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, they come from a Sesame Street cartoon in which a little girl is asked by her mother to walk down to the store. She tells her daughter: “Now, don’t forget: a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.” Then she says: “If you can’t remember, I’ll write it down for you.” But the little girl is confident and says: “That’s o.k. mommy, I won’t forget, I’ll remember.”(Watch it now at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jdP7HUPbVs )

How does she remember? She remembers those three items by repeating them to herself over and over in her head as she walks down the block and into the store: “A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter…a loaf of bread a container of milk, and a stick of butter…a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter…”

Memory is important. Not just for remembering the things on our grocery list, or the important things that people tell us, but also, it seems for our spiritual life.

Do you know about the five loaves and the two fish? Do you know about the five thousand

people who were fed by them? Matthew tells the story in chapter fourteen of his gospel (14:13-21) The story begins when Jesus and his disciples are out in the middle of nowhere among a crowd of over 5,000 people who have been determined to follow them wherever they go. Out there, at the end of a long day of listening to Jesus speak, as the sun begins to set , suddenly the disciples realize: everyone has forgotten to bring something to eat. Over 5,000 people, and among all of them, all they can gather up are 5 loaves of bread and two little fish. Whether they never intended on staying this late, or they just plain forgot, no one brought anything to eat.

Fortunately, the disciples have thought about this, and to avoid an angry, grouchy, hungry crowd turning on them, they’ve come up with a plan that they propose to Jesus: “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.”

Now, when these disciples should be glad that Jesus didn’t look at them and say: “They don’t need to leave, you give them supper. Go into town and don’t forget: 5,000 loaves of bread, 5,000 little fish…and a stick of butter…If you can’t remember, I’ll write it down for you.” While they may not have liked it, they might have understood better if this had been what Jesus says. Because, what Jesus does say to them is: “No one needs to go away. You give them supper.”

Can’t you picture them standing there, speechless, looking at one another? One of them is holding those five loaves and two fish and they sort of put them right in front of Jesus…”Aren’t you forgetting…this is all we’ve got! 5 loaves. 2 fish…5,000 people! This isn’t a sample portion, this is the whole menu!”

Go back to that Sesame Street cartoon for a moment. When the little girl finally arrives at the store, after repeating that shopping list over and over to herself the whole way, she walks up to the counter, looks at the clerk and says: “Sir, can I have a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and…and…I can’t remember…” At the most important part of the trip, she forgot. She remembered as she left the house, as she walked down the street, but at the counter, standing in front of the clerk, on the spot…she forgot! What does she do? She closes her eyes, pictures her mother standing in the kitchen, giving her the instructions, and then, it all comes back to her: “A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and…a stick of butter!” “I remembered!” she shouts.

I think that Jesus’ disciples would have benefited from watching this short cartoon, because if they had, they might have borrowed a page from the little girl’s book and thought back and remembered all other things that Jesus had told them and done with them, instead of giving up so soon.

That day, out in the middle of nowhere, they forgot all about what he said, but I bet you remember, don’t you? You remember when Jesus spoke about the seed that produces thirty, sixty, and a hundred times over! You remember the tiny mustard seed that grows into a tree. You remember that he told you that a mustard seed’s worth of faith can move mountains and uproot trees. You remember all of those stories that Jesus told about small things producing huge results?

His disciplese made it all the way out to the wilderness, they saw the crowds, they listened to Jesus, but when it mattered most, they forgot about all that they had heard and seen.
What does Jesus do? When his disciples seem to be forgetful? Matthew doesn’t mention it, but I like to think that he smiled when looked at them, with those five loaves of bread and those two little fish, and said “Give them to me.”

We know how it turns out. Jesus asks God to bless those five loaves and two fish, and then he breaks the bread and everyone is fed. In the end, it happens just as Jesus said, the disciples give everyone something to eat. All 5,000. Until they couldn’t eat another bite. There are even leftovers to wrap up and take home.

Memory is important, and I would be willing to bet that the disciples never forgot what happened that day. Or, maybe they did. Or maybe Jesus was afraid they would. Later on, when he knows it will matter the most, he goes over it all with them again.

At the Last Supper, Jesus sits them all down and gives them the most dramatic illustration there is of small, simple things producing big results. Maybe his talk with them was just like the mother in that Sesame Street cartoon: “Now don’t forget: the bread is my body, the wine is my blood…If you can’t remember, I’ll write it down for you…” and you can almost see the disciples around the table, repeating it back to him: “No, Jesus ,we won’t forget the bread is your body, the wine is your blood…”

He goes over it with them there, because when they get out into the real world he knows it may be easy to forget. At that critical moment, when his hands are tied and the cross is placed on his shoulders, it would be easy to forget: “the bread is your body, the wine is your blood…” At that critical moment, when he is raised up, and breathes his last breath, you could understand if what happened at the table with the bread and the cup escaped the memory of the disciples.

How well-versed are you in remembering that because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross, that small, simple things can produce huge results? When you reach the critical moments in your life, do you sometimes forget? I know I do. I know that many times, I must seem just like the disciples, standing before God, worried and trembling, saying: “Don’t you see, this is all I’ve got” Then I stand there, and raise up the equivalent of those five loaves of bread and two little fish for God to see.

How about you, do you ever do the same thing? Somehow, at those moments we forget about the mustard seed, the feeding of the 5,000+, and the faith that Jesus showed us on the cross, and all we can think about are how little we have, how bleak it looks, and how God needs to understand the situation our way.

Maybe what we need at that moment is what the little girl in the cartoon had. She had the ability to stop all the worry, the fear, and the wandering of her mind, and remember what her mother had told her. Maybe we need the same thing.

Jesus’ disciples finally remembered. After the cross, after he was dead and buried, three days later, he appeared again. He met two of them on the road and walked with them. All they could talk about was how bleak it was, how little they had, and how their hopes had grown small. Then, Jesus sat with them at the table, and did what he did at the feeding of the 5,000 and at the Last Supper: he took the bread, asked God to bless it, and broke it…and do you know what they said at that moment? “We remember! We remember!”

Every day of your life you have the same chance. Bring all of your hopes that have grown small, all of your skepticism about the future, all of your worries, and bring them to Jesus. Show them to him, and every time he will do the same thing. He will smile, take them from you, ask God to bless them, and show you that with God, no matter how little you feel you have, huge things are possible! Then, before you go, he’ll feed you and ask you to remember that no matter what happens that week: “The bread is my body, the wine is my blood…given for you!”