Dawn paints the shore in pearl and gold. Peter’s muscles quiver with sweet exhaustion as he guides the boat’s bow onto sand. His body remembers every wave they fought, every strike of water against wood, but now – finally – he can breathe. The morning air fills his lungs like a gift, and he lets his head fall back, savoring the simple pleasure of solid ground beneath his feet.
“Another day,” he whispers, a fisherman’s prayer of gratitude. His palms sting as he grips the boat’s edge, ready to haul it higher on shore. Earned pain, honest pain – the kind a man can be proud of.

Then a sound shatters the morning peace – half howl, half sob. Peter’s body tenses, warrior-quick, as a figure emerges from distant rocks. The man moves like a wounded animal, all jerky motion and confused step. His rags flutter in the breeze, revealing flesh marked by chains and stone.
“You!” The voice scrapes like broken shells on sand. “What do you want from me?” Torn hands thrust accusingly toward Jesus, even as the man’s legs carry him closer, closer, as if pulled by an invisible tide.
Peter’s feet shift in the sand, ready to intercept. His arms, though trembling from night’s battle, rise to defend his Master. But Jesus – the same Jesus who commanded last night’s storm – lifts one hand in that familiar gesture of peace. And Peter’s body obeys before his mind catches up, stepping back even as his heart races.
The madman crosses the beach like a man drowning on dry land. His feet stumble-scratch urgent patterns in the sand. Each step seems to cost him, yet he can’t stop coming. When he finally reaches them, his collapse is total – face in the sand, hands clawing earth, body shaking with sobs.
“What do you want from me, Jesus, Son of the Most High?” The words break against the morning air like waves against stone. The man’s body curls in on itself, compress-expand with each ragged breath, caught between terror and desperate hope.

And Jesus – Jesus looks at him the way he looked at the storm. With eyes that see past the surface chaos to something deeper, something worth saving.