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| Photo: Amazon |
GRACE FOR BREAKFAST
Peter’s thoughts are interrupted by a shout from the shore. “Catch any fish?”
Peter and John look up. Probably a villager. “No!” they yell.
“Try the other side!” the voice yells back.
John looks at Peter. What harm? So out sails the net. Peter wraps the rope around his wrist to wait.
But there is no wait. The rope pulls taut, and the net catches. Peter sets his weight against the side of the boat and begins to bring in the net. He’s so intense with the task, he misses the message.
John doesn’t. The moment is déjà vu. This has happened before. The long night. The empty net. The call to cast again. Fish flapping on the floor of the boat. Wait a minute . . . He lifts his eyes to the man on the shore. “It’s him,” he whispers.
Then louder, “It’s Jesus.”
Peter turns and looks. Jesus, the God of heaven and earth, is on the shore . . . and he’s building a fire.
Peter plunges into the water, swims to the shore, and stumbles out wet and shivering and stands in front of the friend he betrayed. Jesus has prepared a bed of coals.
For one of the few times in his life, Peter is silent. What words would suffice? The moment is too holy for words. God is offering breakfast to the friend who betrayed him. And Peter is once again finding grace at Galilee.
What do you say at a moment like this?
What do you say at a moment such as this?
It’s just you and God. You and God both know what you did. And neither one of you is proud of it. What do you do?
You might consider doing what Peter did. Stand in God’s presence. Stand in His sight. Stand still and wait. Sometimes that’s all a soul can do. Too repentant to speak, but too hopeful to leave—we just stand.
Stand amazed.
He has come back.
He invites you to try again. This time, with Him.
-From 3:16, Numbers of Hope
