Restored relationships

If we think about it, most of us can recall a relationship that has been damaged. A trust that has been broken. A promise that was not kept.

God is the God of restoration. His desire to make all things new is centered in the idea of renewed relationships. God wants to heal. God wants to comfort. God wants to rebuild what has been destroyed.

There may be nowhere else in all of Scripture that gets as personal about this as the encounter between Jesus and Peter. Consider Luke’s report about what happened on the night Jesus was arrested…

Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”

But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.

A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”

“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.

About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:54-62)

Imagine the shame and disappointment that Peter must have felt in that moment. In a moment, Peter damaged his relationship with this man, this close friend, that he had walked with for over three years. Even when he said he wouldn’t, Peter still denied Jesus.

For most of us, that would be the end of the friendship. If most of us were in Jesus’ shoes, we would have written our former friend off and moved on. But not Jesus.

It was only days later that Peter was finishing up a night of unproductive fishing that Jesus appeared on the shore. Following the miraculous catch of fish, the disciples joined Jesus on the shore for breakfast. It was over that breakfast, at the start of a new day, that the relationship between Jesus and Peter had a new start.

God invites each of us to join him and find restoration. Whether it’s a division between us and God and us and another person, God wants us to find peace and reconciliation. It is through God that we can experience the ultimate restoration that will bless us in this life and the life to come.

 

shine!
Jason