John 21:15 – Hope in Haiti: Part 5

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” (John 21:15 ESV)

Peter decided he wasn’t worthy and couldn’t be useful any longer to the world, so he went back to the beginning after the resurrection of Jesus. He got in his little boat, rowed out into the sea, and fished the night away in vain.

In the morning, the resurrected Christ, the true Lover of our souls who sees us for what we really are, told him to cast his net on the other side of the boat. When he obeyed, once again writhed that familiar haul of fish, and once again this man found himself before the Living God, broken as if for the very first time.

Did Christ wait for him along the shore to punish him?

No.

He cooked him some breakfast over the fire — I’ve always wondered how tasty it must have been — and He spoke the most tender words this man’s soul ever heard:

“Do you love me… Do you love me… Do you love me?”

Three times, one for every rejection.

That is the character of my Lord. The same for Peter as it was hundreds of years before for another broken man, David in the Psalms. And the same today for you and me and anyone sinking under the weight and strain of ourselves.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him.”

What choice have we but to allow ourselves to be chosen? Why wouldn’t we follow such a patient love that can reach into the deepest of darkness, into the most miserable of hearts, to salvage the gold and unlock the treasure within?

Guest devotion by 
Dan Elliott. Dan is a missionary who sold everything, left America, and started Bibles For Haiti—an organization that does exactly what it sounds like. Learn more about Dan and Bibles For Haiti visit biblesforhaiti.org. This post is adapted from “Haiti Ever After,” the interactive online story of Bibles For Haiti. You can see more, here.