Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach,
but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?”
—John 21. 4-5
After the bewildering overload
of horror and miracle,
the cross, the risen Jesus,
what could we do but return
to something safe—the sane,
the familiar, the predictable?
We went fishing. Something
we knew, what we were good at,
wise elders of the trade.
The reassuring rhythm of the boat,
the conversation of wood knocking on wood,
the friendly murmuring of the water,
the patient interval
as we circle the boat around the net,
then the satisfying pull—
but we could tell right away,
the disappointing ease
of hauling in empty nets.
Nothing. All night, through
the darkness of our certainty,
our confident expertise—nothing.
Near dawn a stranger called
from the shore, “Hey kids,
you got nothing, huh?”
Kids. Like we didn’t know
what we were doing.
Like we were beginners.
He told us where there were fish,
and he was right, and we were
caught up in a new net again,
still learning, at the feet of one
who said to enter the world of God
as children, that masters of resurrection
are always beginning again.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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