Here's to swimming with your clothes on...

I love Peter, the disciple. From what I can tell he is impetuous, adamant, and often mistaken. Try as he might, he often seems to just not 'get it.'  I am no Bible scholar, and I confess that I fall so in love with my ideas, I lean toward not caring if my interpretations are right or not. And my fickle heart resonates with Peter. He burst out with pronouncements and whispers denials and is wrong much of the time.

People fault him for the whole walking on water incident, but I didn't see any other disciples getting their toes wet. He has faith, ardent faith, that wavers and is sometimes misplaced.  Jesus called him 'the Rock' and in the same story 'Satan.'  Seems to me that Peter was all over the board yet spends very little time in-between.

So, they are all crying out in fear, these disciples, when they saw Jesus on the water. Peter demands proof: "If it is you, command me to come to You on the water." And Jesus says "come" and Peter does, but starts seeing all of nature stacked up against his defiance of same. At least when he sinks he knows who to call: "Lord, save me!"

Fast forward to post-resurrection, post-Jesus denying Peter, to the risen Christ appearing to the disciples at the sea of Galilee. It is John who recognizes the man standing on the beach, the one suggesting all the good fishing is on 'the other side of the boat'. John says to Peter, "It is the Lord."  Why did he tell Peter? Was he whispering a fact he is just coming to realize? With Peter there is no hesitation, and here comes my favorite part: Peter puts on his coat and throws himself into the sea. (Oh, Peter, my soul-mate. I am ever throwing myself in and out of the fire, in and out of the sea.)  But why the coat? I have heard sermons making fun of Peter for this, but I think it was his act of faith, his hope that maybe this time he could walk the short distance to the shore while the others rowed. I think he was hoping to greet Jesus, heart full of faith, arms open for embrace, with water on soles of his feet.