Janine C. Hagan Janine is Certified Associate Christian Educator, Presbyterian Church, USA, with a ministry/mission/business at www.faithshapes.com in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

I kept running into the word “draft.” Being the curious sort, I always have to discover or sort out the reason-for-the-pattern. So I turned to an old Webster’s Dictionary and this is what I found. “Draft,” (or namely, Brit “draught/’draft,) 1. “the act of drawing a net, also: the quantity of fish taken at one drawing. 2. The act of pulling along loads by drawing or pulling: b: a team of animals together with what they draw. These are the first meanings of the word, at least in this dictionary. I found this to be strange since our text in John 21 had to do with the very same topic.

Then I checked out the internet. How times change. The online dictionary lists the first meaning of “draft” as, a “drawing, sketch, or design,” and the “team of animals” has been moved to #7, with the “quantity of fish caught” moved to place #21. This is life. This is change. And this is transition. Sophistication has replaced simplicity.

Perhaps the very fact that Jesus “keeps it simple” is something that we need to hold close to our hearts, to our vision and hope for the future. Jesus knew his purpose, his “sealed orders” from God. Jesus knew his task. He listened and cared. He told stories to make a point. Jesus healed. Jesus taught and still teaches us how to love. Not in the way that we usually think of love, but in a way that honors our souls, something that we naturally crave and that redefines wholeness and being natural. Jesus gave new meanings to old words and new symbolic ways of understanding older values. With Jesus Christ a new language, practice, and education-of unconditional love began to take shape.

Easter is about finding Jesus where and when we least expect to find him, and not “in the tomb.” It is about hope that can live in our hearts and give us permission to breathe and be free from fear. What will the “draft” contain? That is not only the quest, it is the adventure that will require teamwork to “pull together” and bring in the net.

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