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FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN DOWNTOWN WILMINGTON NC
Writer's pictureDr. Jim Baldwin

HD Homilies- Emmanuel

Man jumping in pool that looks like he is walking on water.

I woke up this morning to an outside thermometer reading of 19 degrees.  There were reports of snow flurries (a total of 18 flakes) in Wallace yesterday morning.  I know that folks in the Great Lakes region who are digging out of five feet of snow are laughing at my weather-whining, but still, it is cold!


I thought it might warm your heart to see a photo from sunny California one week ago.  ENan and I traveled to Los Angeles to celebrate Thanksgiving and a big 15th birthday party (more on that later) with our family.  The temperatures were in the mid-70s most of the week and the hotel where we stayed had a heated outdoor pool.  Our grandchildren really loved outdoor swimming in December so Granddaddy jumped in with them one day.


The swimming pool experience was not as dramatic as the photo appears.  My beautiful photojournalist, ENan, managed to capture the moment perfectly.  In spite of some folk’s expectations of pastors, parents and grandparents, we don’t walk on water.  The apostle Peter took a few steps on the water before sinking, but Jesus is the only one who has mastered that skill.


The story of Jesus walking on the water has always intrigued me.  (Mark 6:45-50) I wonder why Jesus sent the disciples across the lake without him. I resonate with their struggles as they “made headway painfully because the wind was against them.”  I marvel that Jesus had his eyes on them the whole night.  I laugh when I read how terrified they were when they saw Jesus, thinking he was a ghost.


I don’t believe Jesus was just showing off that night on the lake.  I believe he was teaching his disciples a deep truth they would hold for the rest of their lives.  He wanted them to know that in those times when they felt alone and abandoned, when they felt as though they were getting nowhere and when they were afraid, Jesus would be there with them.  Nothing in heaven or earth would keep him from being with them.


At Christmas we sing, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  The literal translation of the Hebrew word “Emmanuel” is “God with us.”  Maybe the song misses the point.  Jesus is Emmanuel.  In our struggles and our fears, he is already with us.



-Dr. Jim Baldwin

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