It is I; don’t be afraid. (John 6:20)
THE SCENE PLAYS OUT around the world probably every day. A mother and a very young child are out in a busy market or on a bustling street. Something catches the child’s eye and he pauses. Just for a moment. Then he glances around to find his mother gone. His little heart clenches. Tears well up. “Mommy!” And suddenly . . . there she is, hurrying through the crowd, already searching for him. “It’s OK, honey. You don’t have to be scared. Mommy’s here.”
The disciples had encountered a furious storm that had come up on a sea. Such events were known to kill even the most experienced fishermen; the danger was real. With the disciples’ adrenaline already pumping, the sight of something so supernatural as a person walking on water was bound to put them over the edge. Until they heard that voice speak those words: “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
In the midst of life’s storms, the dangers are sometimes very real: job layoffs. a soldier deployed, cancer. Sometimes it’s perfectly normal to fear. But if we look past the rain and waves, we can see something amazing: Jesus, right there in the middle of it, coming toward us unhindered and unconcerned, for He controls it all anyway. And if we listen through the rushing winds, we can hear Him speak: “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Read the full story of Jesus walking through the storm in John 6:16–21.
Diane Gardner lives in the San Francisco Bay area where she enjoys theater, street fairs, and watching the sun set with her husband.
