Hand-Delivered

“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;” Isaiah 49:16

I found myself desperately fighting back the hot tears that stung my eyes and slumping defeatedly into the driver’s seat of my vehicle as I listened to my local pharmacist speak to me through the drive-thru window. The physician had forgotten to write a cough syrup prescription for my 10-year-old son, Major. 

It was Christmas Eve and, thus far, he had been nothing but horribly sick for the entire first week of his much-anticipated holiday break! I had been watching as the violent cough became increasingly worse, now doubling him over and causing his legs to buckle beneath him.  Earlier in the day, I had rushed him to the only urgent care I could find open on a Christmas Eve Sunday and cried with him on the doctor’s examining table as the nurse stuck the tongue depressor down his raw, sore throat.  The diagnosis was the worst type of flu currently going around.

 So now, after the pharmacist informed us of the missing medicine, I frantically grabbed my cell phone to reach the urgent care physician we had just seen a few moments before, but again, it was Christmas Eve.  An unfeeling recorded message greeted me. After recording my tearful request, I dug around to find sunglasses large enough to hide the river of tears streaming down my face. I made my way home with my little boy, weary and sick, in the back seat.

I was almost halfway home when my phone rang sharply, jolting me out of my currently sorrowful state. The voice on the other end sounded vaguely familiar and I realized that it was the pharmacist I had spoken with at the drive-thru window. She asked if, this was “Major’s mother” and then sounded more than a little shocked as she went on to explain that she was calling because they “just had an unknown, out-of-town doctor hand-deliver Major’s cough syrup right up to the pharmacy counter!”

She was excitedly tripping over her words a little bit as she went on to say that this was, “the very first time anything like this had ever happened.” She laughingly asked, “Ma’am, can you come back and get this for him?”

Laughter was now mingling with my tears as I drove back realizing that this was a moment the Great Physician had also ordered for me. God Hand-delivered my miracle through the Door!

God Hand-delivered my miracle through the Door!

Kara Moses

In Matthew 14, Jesus sent the disciples out onto the Sea of Galilee right into a violent storm for the second time! A few chapters earlier, in Matthew 8, the disciples found themselves tossed about on the very same sea with Jesus asleep at the bottom of the boat! This time they are alone on the boat, in the middle of the sea, and at the darkest hour of the night when they see what looks like a “ghost” moving toward their boat in verse 26.

Jesus responds to their fear, as translated in the original Greek, “Do not be afraid. Take courage. I AM.” Recognizing the voice of Jesus, this account further details that Peter asks to “bid him come” out of the boat and he miraculously begins to walk on the water toward Jesus! However, pelted by the unrelenting winds, Peter begins to look around at his circumstances and starts to sink.  Jesus then extends His hand to Peter, pulls him up on top of the storm, and leads him to the safety of the boat which incites the disciples to worship in wonder exclaiming, “Surely You are the Son of God.” 

Study of this revelatory scriptural account teaches us about the Sea of Galilee.  In the storm of Matthew 14, their salvation came walking on the water to them in great demonstration of the New Covenant salvation that was embodied by Jesus!

The same spirit of the “I AM” that hovered over the waters in Genesis 1 identified Himself again in Matthew 14 when Jesus declared triumphantly “Take courage! I AM.” 

An exciting additional note is that “Galilee” means circle and this body of water was also called the “Sea of Chinnerth” in ancient Hebrew translations which notably means “harp.” In the beautiful circle that is the Sea of Galilee, Jesus revealed His never-ending deity and the new song that now comes to all humanity through His Hand-delivered miracle of salvation.

You have not been left alone in your storm.

Kara Moses

Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the harp and shout for joy.” (Psalms 33:3) You have not been left alone in your storm. In fact, like Peter, it is your faith right in the middle of it that will identify Jesus to all those around you and bring about a song of triumphant worship through your life that reverberates endlessly through the ages!