Not an ordinary carpenter

What does a carpenter know about water?  Wood?  Sure.  Hammers and saws? Of course.  But what does a carpenter know about water?  Not too much…except for this carpenter.  This carpenter is different.  I remember when we, my brother and I, first encountered this carpenter. We had been fishing all night, and we had caught nothing.  Then along came the carpenter.  “Push out into the deep water and let down your nets.” We were fishermen.  We knew the water.  Why take advice about fishing from a carpenter?  But this carpenter was different.  We let down our nets and caught more fish than our boat could hold…actually more than two boats could hold safely.  He is no ordinary carpenter.

Then there was the storm.  The carpenter had said that we should all go across the lake.  Then he fell asleep in the back of the boat.  Not too long and the storm hit out of nowhere.  Waves were crashing over the bow.  We all felt sure we were going down for good.  “Master, don’t you care that we are perishing?”  The carpenter woke up. We wanted him to help bail out the water.  But he stood and spoke to the storm.  The carpenter spoke with authority.  And the storm listened.  “Be still!”  And it was still.  He is no ordinary carpenter.

It seems this carpenter knows about water.  He knows more than us fishermen when it comes to water…well, when it comes to everything.  I remember that other time when he sent us off in the boat and said he would come later.  We were pulling on the oars as hard as we could, but the wind was against us.  It had gotten dark, and the wind had come up, and the waves with the wind.  That’s when the carpenter came.  He came on the water, but he wasn’t in a boat.  He was walking.  “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  His reply – one word:  “Come”.  So I stepped over the edge of the boat.  I stepped out onto the water, looking into his face.  Then the wind and waves caught my attention.  What am I doing out here?  I started to sink down.  I called out to him.  And he caught my arm, lifting me up.  “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  He is no ordinary carpenter.

We saw the carpenter heal the sick.  We saw him give sight to the blind. And we saw him beaten, and we saw him die. But in three days, we saw him alive again.  Death was no match for this carpenter. 

Later Nathaniel, Thomas, James, John and two of the others and I were together.  I suggested that we go fishing, and they agreed.  So we went out in the boat, but we caught nothing.  “Children, do you have any fish?”  “No.” “Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”  Some?  There were so many we couldn’t pull the net in.  It was John who recognized him first.  “It is the Lord!”  He didn’t have to say it twice.  I was in the water and made for the shore. 

What does a carpenter know about water?  Well, this carpenter is not a regular carpenter.  He is not like any other carpenter you have ever met.  He is the Lord of the wind and waves. He is the Light in the storm. And He is the one who gives living water.