Breakfast with Jesus

                  One of my favorite lines of Scripture in the entire New Testament comes from the Gospel of John, when the resurrected Jesus is standing by the seashore with a ‘charcoal fire’ lit and says, “Come and have breakfast” (John 21) Breakfast with Jesus, what a wonderful idea.

            My best friend Sara often likes to drag me into the outdoors, don’t get me wrong I absolutely love nature and the deep spiritual connection it brings to me, but I’ve never been one for laying in the grass or climbing trees. Sara is slowly but surely changing that. Recently we were out in the wilderness around Boone and the sun was setting. We knew that a fire should be lit to compliment the wonderful day we were having.

            Sara worked so hard at getting that fire lit, but the wood was wet and nothing would stay on fire for very long. I even tried my Eagle Scout hands at it thinking surely it would eventually light, but to no avail. We finally gave up and decided it was a lost cause. How many times has that happened to us? In our attempts to kindle a spiritual fire the wood we often have is wet, the things we claim are spiritual aren’t, faith doesn’t look the way we’d like it to.

            The next morning I went with Sara to breakfast to discuss the trials and triumphs of the night before. We discussed the fire, the stars, the sunset, and the beauty of nature. The Gospel writer in John gives us some depiction of the conversation Jesus had with Peter but I often wonder what else was said. One of my mom’s favorite hymns is a conception of that conversation by the a seashore, “Lord, you have come to the lakeshore looking neither for wealthy nor wise ones. You only asked me to follow humbly. O Lord, with your eyes you have searched me, kindly smiling, have spoken my name. Now my boat's left on the shoreline behind me; by your side I will seek other seas.”

            Friends as we journey through this year, let us never forget the holiness of kindling a fire, or the sacred aspects of breakfast in fellowship with the people you love. Holy friends let us remember that nature has the beauty of God instilled in it. This time of the year the dandelions are fresh in the field I can picture Jesus, standing there in resurrection glory telling his friends to tend his sheep and to love him fully.

That mandate is one that is still around today. So the next time you’re trying to light that spiritual fire, and for whatever reason it won’t light, why not try breakfast with Jesus. Go have coffee with Jesus, or enjoy your favorite meal in the faith that God is present with you, in the quiet contemplative silence you can see the face of God. For like Elijah we find God not in the thunder or the wind, but in the still small voice that comes to us while we enjoy breakfast or try to light a fire. Never forget that God is the love we feel when gathered around a breakfast table. Thanks be to God.