Familiar and Safe

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In my time with God this morning, I ran into a familiar story that we've all heard.  In fact, I thought about "familiarity" a lot when I was noodling it,

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2021:1-14&version=NIV

Which produced a, somewhat unfamiliar, epiphany.  

Jesus had just been crucified, and had risen from the dead but the disciples by and large did not accept this fact at the time.  Peter and John had been to the tomb and saw it empty, but Peter didn't believe yet that Jesus rose from the dead.  Peter, probably in trying to figure things out, likely out of the shame of having disowned Jesus, and possibly out of disillusionment - decided to go back to the thing he knew...

He went fishing.  He had a  fishing business before meeting Jesus.  It was familiar.  

And then, Peter hears this guy on the shore.

Guy on shore:  "Caught anything yet?" (my translation into "Southern")

Guys on boat:  "No" 

Guy on shore:  "Cast your nets to the other side and you'll catch something."

Guys on boat:  (my interpretation) "oh, alright."

And you know what happened.  The disciples on the boat caught a big haul and they were struggling to get it back on the boat.  This is a familiar "deja vu" moment for Peter... because it was this miracle that caught Peter's attention in the first place.  And then it clicked... This is Jesus!

And then Peter does something that he's done before... remember there was this other time that Peter was on a boat, Jesus was not, and Peter jumped out of the boat?  There was this storm... and Peter walked on water. 

Well...  Peter didn't wait for the boat to get to shore this time either.  Before you could say "holy cow that's a lot of fish!" he was down to his fruit of the looms and was swimming to shore.  

You would think that Peter would have found a great place to hide in the boat when he made this realization.  After all, the first time this fish trick was done he wanted to cower away from Jesus when he figured out who exactly he was talking to.  And to top that off, the last time he was face-to-face with Jesus he was calling down curses on himself denying he knew Jesus at all over at Caiaphas' house!

But... that's not what Pete did.  Peter had enough experience with Jesus to jump out of the boat.  Despite the shame he must have felt and the doubts I'm sure he had, he knew that he had to swim as hard as he could to that guy who could make fish jump into nets and made death obsolete.  Peter knew, because he has received grace, that Jesus was safe.  He knew this person was the one who held the keys to eternal life... and just try holding Peter back from being with him.  

It makes me wonder about my, and our, own responses to Jesus.  Do we believe Jesus is safe, especially when He speaks into familiar, once possibly shameful, circumstances that we met Him in before?  The great news is that He treats us just as he treated Peter... He didn't wait for him to get his act together, He met Peter where Peter was.  And Peter did like this impulsive guy always did... no questions asked, I'm out of the boat... STAT.  Jesus, I want to be where you are.  

What would our lives look like if we did the same?  I mean, HE is safe.  Let's run into his arms, and receive his grace without question.  We can ask questions later... but when it comes to getting life I wouldn't want to wait.

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