Hello,
My friends.
To begin this meditation,
I invite you to be still.
To do so,
I simply mean to close your eyes,
Quiet your mind,
Relax your body,
And take a few deep breaths.
Adopt an attitude of gratitude and of non-judgment and embrace a heart and mindset of peace and loving-kindness.
Imagine you're on a fishing boat with some of the disciples.
Feel the sea breeze on your face.
Smell the salty sea air.
Look out at the waves in the sea and see the beach you are slowly headed towards off in the distance.
Hear the calls of the seabirds and hear the waves gently lapping against the ship.
The mood is somber.
The rabbi you have all been following for the past few years has just been crucified.
It feels like all hope is lost.
These particular disciples,
They have returned to their fishing boats simply because it was the only life they knew before they began their apprenticeship with Yeshua.
They have returned to their ships for lack of any better ideas.
As you head back toward the shore,
Getting closer now,
You feel as though there's a slight change in mood,
Almost like a changing in the wind.
With this slight change in mood,
You notice a new smell,
A very faint smell of smoke,
As if someone had lit a campfire on the beach.
You join the other disciples in looking along the shore on the starboard side,
And sure enough,
There is a man sitting on a piece of driftwood on the beach with a fire burning in front of him.
There are a few other pieces of driftwood around the fire,
As if this man had set it up and was expecting to entertain guests around the fire.
Peter inexplicably shouts,
It's him!
And with a bewildered look in his eyes,
He runs to the starboard side of the ship,
Dives into the ocean,
And begins to swim like a madman toward the shore.
The rest of the disciples,
While mildly surprised,
Seem unfazed by this.
Peter has been acting a little strange ever since Yeshua was arrested.
Actually,
Peter has always been at least a little strange.
At any rate,
Somebody has to dock the boat properly,
So you and the rest of the disciples do the right thing and dock the boat.
And once the boat is docked,
You all set out together to investigate the stranger on the beach,
His campfire,
And what it was that got Peter so excited.
As you walk along the sandy shore,
Feeling the sand beneath your feet,
Getting closer to Peter and the stranger,
You can hear that they are laughing together.
And once you are close enough to see their faces,
You realize Peter has been crying.
The stranger is speaking.
He's telling familiar stories of the old prophets and of deliverance,
Stories of slaves being freed and oppressed people being rescued.
And yet somehow,
These old familiar stories seem to have a new slant to them,
A new life to them.
It's almost as if you're hearing them for the first time.
You and the others,
As if by intuition or habit,
All sit around the campfire to listen to the stranger speak.
As he continues to speak,
You and the other disciples are all immersed in the stranger's stories.
As he continues to speak,
Something else,
Something other than the stories,
Begins to seem familiar about this beach stranger.
You begin to have this sense,
This feeling,
That you're part of these stories,
That this stranger is part of the stories,
And that somehow your connection to the stranger is all part of the stories.
And then,
All of a sudden,
It clicks.
You realize what Peter knew while still on the boat.
That somehow,
This stranger on the beach is Yeshua,
Your Messiah,
Your Savior.
You look around and notice the look on the other disciples' faces,
As one by one,
This truth dawns on them in turn.
You see the features of his face.
You recognize it is him.
You're perplexed that you didn't recognize him sooner.
And as this truth settles in,
That this stranger is Yeshua,
Begins to make sense.
It all makes sense now.
Sort of.
You now understand that even though your Messiah was killed,
Was killed,
And even though you don't understand why he had to die,
You know,
Somehow in this moment,
You just know that Yeshua will always be with you.
Somehow,
There is only this moment.
This moment is all there is.
Somehow,
There will only ever be this moment.
Even though all hope had been lost.
Even though our Messiah has been crucified.
Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
You will somehow always be right here,
Right now,
Sitting on the beach with Yeshua.
Thank you for sharing this tender,
Sacred moment with me today,
My dear friends.
May grace and peace be with you.
May grace,
Light,
And love be with you.
