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Memory and Imagination
The burning bush growing by our front deck is, due to all the recent rain, lush with green foliage and immature fruit this spring. Remembering last fall's striking red leaves and berries, I picture how truly stunning this shrub has the potential for being when it once again turns red. Memory and imagination can be beautiful gifts.
John, chapter 21. Imagine the scene: Early morning, Sea of Tiberius. Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two other disciples still out on a little boat fishing after a long, unsuccessful night of casting their nets.
They see a Man whom they do not, at first, recognize standing on the shore. He calls out to them, Children, have you any food? They answer simply, No. One imagines that after such a long, unrewarding night at the nets, they have little energy for more of a reply. And yet, when John recognizes the risen Lord Jesus, and tells Peter, Peter immediately puts on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea. Peter isn't walking on water this time (an indication of the current weakness of Peter's faith), but I believe it's a good thing that he seems just as determined to walk toward his Lord!
What do Peter and the other disciples see when they reach the shore?
Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. vs. 9
What, do you imagine, comes into their minds when they see their risen Lord in His third post-resurrection appearance to them? Seeing the bread and fish, do they remember a small boy's lunch of loaves and fish? Or maybe they are remembering that last Passover supper they shared with Him, and the bread he broke there? What about Peter? What is he thinking? Could he be remembering the last time he stood by a fire of coals with his Lord Jesus nearby?
Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, "You are not also one of this Man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself. John 18:17-18
Imagine the guilt Peter must have felt if that other "fire of coals" crossed his mind at this time!
We have moments like that, yes? Things that suddenly remind us of past failures, past times of standing over false fires which could never truly warm us. I used to wish God would help me forget those times in my life as He forgot them when I repented and He forgave me, but now I've begun to realize the value of remembering. Not dwelling on past failures and getting in some debilitating funk of unworthiness, but remembering so I'll never again be foolish enough to try to warm myself over any fire of coals but the one built by my risen Lord. Remembering so that the only flame I draw near is like the one Moses drew near in the midst of the bush he saw in the desert, a holy flame of fire. Remembering so that, hopefully, the autumn of my life will burn gloriously red just like that shrub by my deck.
Daye Phillippo
May 2011