“But seeing the wind, Peter became afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Save me, Lord!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him….” (Matthew 14:30-31).
It’s like a video of the Boston Red Sox guy letting that World Series game-winning single run through his legs. Had he caught it and stepped on first base, the game would have ended and the Red Sox would have ended that so-called curse a full fifteen or twenty years earlier than they did. Ask that player and his family. It has run a zillion times on youtube and in the minds of the fans. They have enshrined his failure. They think of him and they forget all the thousands of put-outs he made at first base, the hits he got, the runs he produced. That is how Peter must feel.
Think of Simon Peter walking on the water to Jesus that night when the winds howled and the sea raged and far from being impressed–as one would think we should be!–we see only that “he took his eyes off Jesus and put them on the wave,” and began to sink. As though we would not have!
I’m so glad Peter did that. Yes, I’m happy he walked those few steps on the Galilee, of course, and really really impressed. But everything inside me gives thanks that he then had a problem with what he was doing and messed it up.