If you follow Jesus there will be winds and waves. If you do not want to create waves and if you become afraid because of the high winds, you will never experience the exhilaration and deliverance of being rescued by Jesus. You will escape the companionship of those who witness such miracles.

Peter was not the only one affected the night he stepped out of the boat and into the rolling waves.

How would you have felt if you were in the boat with the others, watching?

I know there would have been a great gasp from my mouth. Then the pounding of my heart would  have caused me to double over. Was I about to die? Choking, my eyes would have bulged in terror. I would have grabbed the first hand next to me . . . or arm. I might have grabbed the disciple I had been avoiding for days, weeks, even years. Any embrace from anybody would be welcomed though.

Sometimes, Jesus allows the wind and the waves to jolt us into reality, the reality that we all belong to the family of God.