I am always amazed by the unexpected twists and turns that
accompany life.
After a hard night of fishing Jesus tells Simon, "Put out into
deep water,
and let down the nets for a catch." The reply is so human,
"Master we’ve
worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything." But there is
always hope
so Peter says, "because you say so, I will let down the net."
The bounty of the catch is so unexpected, it is startling. The
nets begin to
tear, two boats can barely handle the load, gorged to
overflowing, the boats
begin to sink and then the realization sets in. Peter is
astonished.
A friend told me about being in a boat hunting Canadian Geese in
the dead of
winter on a freezing lake. Bone cold the three of them in a
16-foot aluminum
boat hold out for a few more minutes of light and the last
chance at a
goose. Sure enough their patience is rewarded. Overhead they
hear a flight.
Each of them fire their long goose guns straight up and two of
the biggest
birds come tumbling down out of the sky. For an instant they
were
exhilarated; then horror griped them. One of those birds was
headed straight
for the boat. 35 pounds of goose at 90 miles and hour. When it
finally hit
the boat it nearly sunk it and them with it. Sometimes you get
what we want
but it comes at you from a different angle.
When Simon Peter saw just how many fish there were, the Bible
says, he fell
to his knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful
man." Peter got
what he wanted, a good catch for a nights work, but something in
the interim
had occurred to him. What was it? What is it that suddenly
dawned on him? It
wasn't the number of fish; rather, it was who this man was who
had just lead
him to the biggest catch of his life. In no way could Peter have
been
prepared for the catch he would soon participate in but for now
Jesus says,
"Don’t be afraid, Peter, from now on you will be catching men."
Brent Porterfield, www.eSermons.com, January, 2001