"Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples"

  "Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there - Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. 

 Simon Peter said, "I'm going fishing." "We'll come too," they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

 At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn't see who he was. He called out, "Fellows, have you caught any fish?" "No," they replied.

 Then he said, "Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you'll get some!" So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it. 

 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, "It's the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore. When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them - fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread. 

 "Bring some of the fish you've caught," Jesus said. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn't torn." (John 21:1-11 NLT)

  "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands." (PSALMS 102:25 KJV)

 Have you ever felt as if you are not where you should be? Feeling as though you might be stuck in midst of a fog, hoping for the light of day? Well, this is where we find these seven disciples. Oddly enough, even when you don't do what you should, and might even go off course, you are always, somehow, going to be on the right path! 

 We might not see that is the truth, because we hardly ever feel everything we have done was for the good. Even when we do good, we sometimes feel as though we could have done better. Someone we know might have done the same, with less and without the help of others; and yet, they did it better than you. 

 This is something I have dealt with, for many years; over and over, coming to the same feeling of remorse and pity for myself, having done this or that, praying, as it were, that I could somehow take it back! "But God!" (I have been told, time and time again,) "He makes all things new!" 

 If you could undo something that you have done, then there would be something missing in your life! Whatever it was, you might have done, there was something that was somehow made good of it, most of which you don't even know! 

 When I was discharged from the Navy in February of 1979, I thought I was going to settle down in Texas, as that was where grandfather lived. They had planned to come out and get me, after all of my stuff I shipped from Japan had reached my mother's house. 

 While visiting a friend, I meet Marianne! I had no clue who she was, but she knew who I was, and she came by to meet me. I was a pretty bad kid in school, and someone had told her to stay away from me, because I was nothing but trouble. 

 Oddly enough, I think of that quite often, wondering what it was that drew her to me...

"They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old as a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee." (PSALMS 102:26-28 KJV)