Gone Fishing

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling is the story of Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled fifteen year old son of a railroad baron. The boy falls overboard from an ocean liner on his way to Europe with his mother. Unknown to anyone on the liner, Harvey is picked up alive by a nearby fishing boat which will not return to port for at least five months. Thus begins the saga of Harvey’s “coming of age”, as he must earn his keep on the “We’re Here” fishing boat for those months at sea.

Near the end of the story Kipling introduces the boy’s father, Harvey Cheyne senior, as he grieves for the loss of his son: “ Of his own sorrow he spoke little—hardly realized the depth of it till he caught himself asking the calendar on his writing desk, ‘ What’s the use of going on?’” The senior Cheyne’s trip to self understanding and change is less dramatic than his son’s, but equally great.

A fishing boat was Peter’s first recourse as he mulled the death and resurrection of his friend Jesus. Peter, too, may have wondered, “What’s the use of going on?” When he said, I’m going out to fish. (John 21:3). When Jesus died Peter knew that he had not been the friend he had wanted to be.

When his son disappeared, the fictional Harvey Cheyne realized that he had not been the father he had wanted to be. The father who thought he had lost a son, and Peter, who thought he had lost Jesus, are both infused with hope and purpose when they finally have a one-on-one encounter with their “lost” one.

I believe that God seeks a one-on-one reunion with every soul. The power of the real knowledge of resurrection can work slowly at first, but it becomes the deepest , most abiding change in Peter. That personal contact with the risen friend was required for Peter’s transformation, enabling him to fulfill Jesus’ promise that Peter would be the rock on which Jesus would build his church. ( Matt. 16:18). Throughout all time the ways of God are still deeply personal, and they still supply the hope, joy, and purpose that we need.

Love in Him,

Prue