"Come"

"And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus." (Matthew 14:28-29) February 17, 2010 I remember going to bed just crying out to God, asking Him if I was really meant to be a cross-culture missionary or not. I questioned Him for hours- all through the night. But waking up that next morning I will never forget. When God gives me peace, it's a peace that I can't even describe. It is purely God given. And that is what I felt on the morning, along with one simple word I knew the Holy Spirit whispered into my sleeping ears that night: come. I knew I had read Jesus saying that to one of His disciples somewhere, but never bothered looking it up, I just knew for a fact that God was taking me to the mission field. Now, just today I was thinking about that moment and decided to look it up. Flipping through the pages of Matthew I came upon these verses. In the verses just before these, the disciples were scared, thinking that the man walking on the water was a Spirit. That night I was scared, thinking that missions wasn't my thing. Jesus answered them and said "be not afraid" in these words do I take comfort every day. Peter still wasn't sure (neither was I) and asked God, not for a miraculous sign, not for a big voice from above, but for an invitation, a call. That night all I asked God for, was an answer, an invitation, a call. And Jesus said Come. Both to Peter and to me. That's all Peter needed, that's all I needed. He stepped off the boat, I stepped on the airplane. He walked on water, I served in Mexico for two weeks at age 15 (and practically on my lonesome.) Peter and I did these things for one reason: To go to Jesus. Reading this story over and over, continuing to compare it to my life, I have found so much in just the one word come. When thinking about leaving, going, departing, for the next unknown, I feel sad. Not only for myself, but for the people I know staying behind. I have a hard time explaining that God wants me to go there, that he will be with me all the way. But then I thought about what 'come' means, to move toward someone or something. Light bulb! My God is already 'there' (wherever 'there' may be) and he is asking me to join him there. He has already made the journey and is waiting for me. All I have to do is follow His footsteps and meet him. Wherever he calls me, he won't push me in front and say "you first" like coming upon a dark scary ally in a movie. No, he says "I've gone first, now your turn, come." In the following verses Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and begins to sink, but our God is a gracious and forgiving God. He extends his hand and helps us back up and teaches us. The passage ends when the disciples gives pure praise and worship to the Son of God. "Come."

A 'coincidence' that happened while there in Mexico. In the kitchen of the Zaragozas' home, hangs two pictures that absolutely drove me insane the whole time because they hung unevenly on the wall... Well one of them was a depiction of Peter and Jesus on the water with the seas raging behind them! Coincidence? I think not.