Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33
The disciples and others experienced faith and the spiritual journey as a struggle of the heart and soul against all sorts of forces and impulses. The flesh itself was something to be conquered and chastised.
Jesus was different. He didn’t view the natural body, in its fleshliness, as something to be mortified or conquered. The natural world was not something to be tamed. Part of the abundant life that Jesus came to give involved returning people to their home and place in the blessings of Creation – the world of nature. Jesus spent time renewing his spirit in nature as a natural means of communing with its very Creator.
