Andrew's Diary - a day in the life of a disciple
A story by Liz Hinds - From Swansea, Wales
Tuesday Sep 18th 0033
Dear diary
Its 7 o’clock in the morning, I’ve just come in and I’m shattered, but I’ve got to write this down before I forget. Not that I could forget something like this.
But then something like this happens everyday now. I just want to get it straight in my head so one day I can tell my children and my grandchildren just what it was like to be a disciple of Jesus’s. Not that I’ve got any children yet. I’m not even married.
I’d only just started working with my brother Peter when Jesus called us. Did I write about that before? I can’t remember; I didn’t start keeping this diary until a short while ago. That was when I realised I was involved with something really special, with someone out of the ordinary.
See, Peter and me were fishermen until Jesus called us. We were mending our nets on the shore one day – you’ve got to keep mending your nets when you’re a fisherman because they get caught on rocks or rubbish get mixed up in them and they get torn. And if we didn’t mend them we wouldn’t catch any fish; they’d all swim in and straight out again. Mending nets is better than washing them though because nets are mostly holes. Anyway we were mending them when Jesus says to us, ‘come and follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.’
I thought he was having a laugh, making a joke, but Pete just put down his net and walked off with him. Well I didn’t want to miss out – or be left with all the work to do – so I ran after them. And I’ve been following Jesus round the country ever since. And do you know: I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Every day is different with Jesus. He heals people most days, even people who’re really sick or DEAD even. And he tells us stories, stories with deep meanings – so deep the others have to explain them to me - and he argues with the Pharisees – I’ve never heard anyone argue with a Pharisee before. And he does these miracles all the time, like they’re nothing special.
Yesterday he was talking to a huge crowd of people and they’d been there all day and were getting hungry so he only goes and feeds them all. There must have been 5000 blokes plus women, plus children…. Loads of people. All Jesus had to feed them with was 5 loaves and 2 fishes. But he did it. No problem.
But that wasn’t what I wanted to write about just now. After they’d been fed, Jesus sent the people home and he told us, his disciples, to get in the boat and sail across the bay. He went off up into the hills to pray. He can pray that Jesus: he thinks nothing of praying all night. He says he’s just talking to his father and it’s easy. So that’s what he did last night.
Meanwhile we were out in the boat, right in the middle of the sea, and it was dark and it was windy and cold and the sea was getting rough, and we weren’t really sure what Jesus had planned and when he was going to join us and to be honest we were a bit fed up. I was just dropping off to sleep even though it wasn’t easy to sleep when the boat was rocking so much, when all of a sudden Pete shouts out, ‘look!’
We all sat up and peered into the darkness. ‘What?’ ‘What is it?’ I couldn’t see anything at first then I suddenly saw what Pete was pointing at. ‘It’s a g g g g g ghost!’ I screamed. It was coming towards us floating on the water. ‘Quick, put up the sails,’ Pete shouted, ‘we’ve got to get away.’ We were all falling over each other we were so desperate to get the sails up and get away from the ghost. And we were shouting at each other so much we didn’t hear him at first. But then someone said, ‘Wait, listen!’
We all stopped and then we could hear Jesus’s voice, ‘It’s me!’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid.’
We all edged close to the side of the boat and peered out at the ghost. As he got closer we could see he was smiling: it was Jesus!
But Peter had had such a shock that he still didn’t believe it, so he shouted out to the figure, ‘If it’s you, Lord, tell me to come to you.’
‘Come,’ Jesus said, just like that, and he held out his hand towards Peter. Peter grinned, jumped out of the boat and started walking on water! Actually walking on water like Jesus. Wow, we were amazed. We all just stood there gob smacked, and watched.
I couldn’t see his face because he was facing Jesus but suddenly he started waving his arms in the air, shouting and sinking into the water. ‘Peter!’ I yelled but it was all right because Jesus was there. He stretched out his hand and caught Peter’s and pulled him up out of the water. Jesus put his arm round Peter’s waist and I could see Jesus shaking his head as if to say, ‘oh Peter, where’s your faith, man.’ But he was smiling and Peter must have felt safe because he began to smile too and they both walked on the water back to the boat.
The wind didn’t seem so bad after that or the sea so rough so we all got some sleep until it was light enough to bring the boat back to the shore. It’s been one fantastic night.
We are on dry land now. Lots of people are bringing their sick family and friends for Jesus to heal them. Another amazing day following Jesus is about to begin. I’ll write it all later.
Signed Andrew