LIKE the fabled Dick Wittington, who visited London expecting her streets to be paved with gold, I also, many decades ago, entered the city of Bombay, now Mumbai, expecting to set up a business from scratch and become a millionaire overnight. But those same streets, gold-less and cold, cruelly taunted me day in and day out, as I walked them, selling my ideas and product from house to house, flat to flat and quite often office to office.
Then, often, depressed, and disappointed with no sale done, I’d find a tiny lane in Nepean Sea Road, or Juhu, leading me to a beach, and there tiredly plonking my cheap briefcase onto the sands, I’d sit and watch the sea. This was something I did time and again, seeking solace and comfort from the stillness that the bouncing waves offered.
For many years, I’ve read Psalm 23 and reflected on the second verse, “He leadeth me by the still waters” And for many years I’ve imagined a placid lake or a gently flowing stream and the peace and calm that those still waters offer. But today, as I thought about those early days, sitting tired and worn on the beach, getting solace from the waves, I see another scene unfolding: Disciples on a boat in a tempestuous sea. The waves are high, and the boat rocks like a handkerchief in a washing machine. I see them terrified.
And then across the angry waves they see a figure: 26 “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said.
I sit on the beach, and suddenly with renewed hope watch Peter jump over his boat and into the sea, then stare with amazement as he walks across to his master. I close my eyes here and don’t look farther as I see what Peter first saw, that the stillness of the waters is not a placid lake or gently flowing stream, but could be an angry sea with Tsunami waves, but a Jesus beckoning to us, saying, “Come!” makes those waters still!
And in my mind’s eye I see a young me, getting up from the scorching ground, picking up the same briefcase, with a handle as hot as the sands, grasping it with renewed vigour, walking back to those same streets and selling with a new divine vigour! And time and time and again, it turned out to be a successful day at business.
What waves are you staring at today? Can you see Peter, and then you yourself, jumping into those waves, hearing God say, “Come!”, then finding with a chuckle and a smile of glee that those same frightening waves are now still waters…!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
