Aching for the Familiar, Longing for New Life

"I am going fishing." This line of Peter's in last Friday’s Gospel reading struck me (John 21:3). Their leader had been crucified, He had already appeared to them and broken open the word, and what did Peter do? He returned to what was familiar and known. 
 
I relate so much to Peter. I get him. He enthusiastically wants to follow, but then mucks it up all the time. He wants to do something. And today that something is returning to life as it had been before. Does that mean he had abandoned everything else? Who knows. I suspect he just wanted to return to something familiar and comforting during a time of doubt and confusion after the Resurrection and before Pentecost. 
 
But here's what else struck me ... Jesus met them on the shore. He wasn't surprised they went back to fishing, back to the familiar and comforting. He didn't even chide them for it - in fact He helps them. He meets them there and then calls them in deeper. Meets them where they are and then calls from there. 
 
This is comforting to me. Because after all this quarantine and pandemic I want to be different, but I also have a deep ache and longing to go back to all that was comforting and familiar before. But that ache is ok. Jesus will meet me there too. He'll meet me wherever I am and call me forth. He's always waiting for me, like He was for the apostles on the boat, ready to reassure and remind them, and me, of the truth: He is risen. And that changes everything.