Artist: M Alice Abrams
Title: Tempest Tossed
Medium: Linoleum Block Print, watercolor, colored pencil
Size: 15 x 18 in.
Artist Statement: 
Peter was keenly aware of what dangers the sea held. He had lost friends, family, colleagues to treacherous waters. Everyone on that boat had. Peter knew better than anyone that Galilee was a mass grave, unforgiving and boisterous. But for a moment, seeing his best friend walk on the water, Peter forgot all about those dangers, and did something none of them ever dreamed possible. He threw himself over the side of the boat and ran. He skipped like a smooth stone towards his Savior. He leapt over the swells, growing bigger, taller, beginning to break. Barely seeing the windswept hairs on top of Jesus’s head, he kept his eyes locked on his goal, until he came fully back into view. Suddenly, seeing his friend’s silhouette against the dark, towering waves made him realize how incredibly small and fragile his life was. What was he doing?!
 
And then, in a moment, the sea swallowed him whole.
 
He’s pushed under by a force more powerful than a horse's kick to the chest, knocking the breath straight from his lungs. Panicked, reaching, thrashing. Suddenly a hand shoots through the water and grasps his. Almost as quickly as he fell, one mighty heave and Peter is back in the cold, damp air, gasping for breath in the arms of his brother.
 
A reassuring pat on the back as he coughs up the last of the murk that nearly sunk him. “Oh Peter, ye of little faith. Wherefore didn’t thou doubt?” The tears are indistinguishable from the spray, and the embarrassment bitter. But a confident smile, light pat on the face, and a tug into the crook of his friend’s arm gives both Peter and the Savior a jolt of excitement as they jog back to the boat, shivering and grinning ear to ear.