December 11 - Sea of Galilee

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He went fishing. He went fishing, and when he came back he was a changed man! The beauty and the bounty of the water surrounds us here in Door County. Even if you don’t fish, you might find solace as you see the water. Just breathing in the power and the provision that it brings to our lives can move us.

Peter was brokenhearted. He had denied Jesus three times, just as Jesus had predicted, and he must have felt like an utter failure. Perhaps he went to the Sea of Galilee to try to find a way forward in his life, perhaps he was hungry and needed the sustenance that the sea provided, or perhaps he was looking for a miracle. Was he remembering how Jesus calmed the storm as he contemplated the storm in his own life? Did the Holy Spirit compel him to go to the sea, knowing that Jesus would meet him there? That is the key, Jesus meets us when we are at our lowest place, when we feel we have failed Him, when we are sure there is no hope. Jesus came and met Peter in the place that he was, and resurrected him to new life through the forgiveness of his sins and doubts.

The forgiveness of sins, and the path to the fullness of life is the mission of Jesus for each one of us to see, and to know. That is why He was born, and why we can celebrate the reality that was then, and is now: that God is with us, that He can forgive all our sins, that He has a future for us, and that nothing can ever separate us from His great love. May you be compelled to meet Him anew in this season of Advent.

Nancy Lewis
Retired Covenant Pastor/Spiritual Director



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