Walking on Water

Why did Jesus choose Peter? How could He love a man like Peter? The reason we wonder, we want to know, is because behind, underneath, and wrapped around those questions are deeper, more personal ones. How can Jesus love me? Does He? We relate to Peter, not because of his personality, whether similar to ours or not, but because he was every bit as deeply flawed as I am—as we all are. One moment, his faith stood strong, boldly declaring Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God; the next, he was opposing God’s will with his own. One impulse was to strike the servant of the high priest and to die defending Jesus; the next was to run, only to deny three times that he even knew Jesus. Peter was like us, with a desire for what is right but so inclined toward what is wrong. A common man. Peter was not exceptional by nature; he was used exceptionally by God because he never stopped giving himself to God a little more completely after each lesson of failure found in him. What turned out to be Peter’s great strength was admitting his own weakness, his need for a Savior. Why did Jesus choose Peter? Grace— always and only. Peter knew it and never stopped pointing others to Jesus to find it for themselves.

To every person who doesn’t deserve Jesus’s love, to every follower of Christ who has fallen flat on their faces and failed completely one time or another or many times over—Jesus picked Peter up every time.