Prayer for a deepening of faith as we pass through the storms of life

The Gospel text today, from Matthew 14:22-36, can be read in different ways because it relates to different aspects of our lives. I like to imagine myself as one of the disciples. The story begins with Jesus sending us off by ourselves. Jesus then deals with unfinished business and sends the crowds back to their homes. Afterwards he goes off into the hills to pray by himself. The quiet solitude that Jesus enjoys in the hills contrasts with what we are experiencing in the boat. We are way out in the middle of the lake, far from land, and the storm has been raging all night. Then, as we come to the last quarter of the night, between 3.00 and 6.00am, and the storm is still swirling around us, there is Jesus coming towards us, walking on the waters. However we thought it must be a ghost. So Jesus calls out, “Courage, it is I.” I’m not sure. But then Peter calls out and says, “if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.” All Jesus says is “come”. That familiar call and familiar voice. Well, you have to take your hat off to Peter, he gets out and walks towards Jesus. We watch in admiration. Peter is fine as long as he keeps his attention on Jesus. He walks across the waters too. But just as he got close, he lost focus and suddenly became aware of the storm raging around them. As he began to sink, Peter cried out, “Lord! Save me!” Jesus reached out his hands to grab hold of Peter and said, “Why did you let your fear undermine your faith? Why did you doubt?” Then, as Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the storm instantly subsided. That was the time to take the knee and confess our faith in Jesus as “the Son of God.” As we pass through the storms of life, like the present pandemic sweeping the world, we may sometimes feel like we have been abandoned. (This is when I like to recall the last stanza of the poem “Footprints”, “He whispered, ‘My precious child, I love you and will never leave you. Never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.’”) Let us pray for a deepening of faith and for that abiding trust whereby we can always be assured that Jesus accompanies us and carries us through the storms of life.