"Now what?"

(After Jesus died and resurrected:)

“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them [to the disciples that were with him], and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
 “No,” they answered.
 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish”- John 21.
       
    The disciples had just spent three years with the Son of God. Every day they were fed to the core of spirit and soul with the life giving truth of the universe. They witnessed the glory of God, miracles, true love dying on the cross for their sins. Jesus had been with them, their friend. I am imagining what it was like for the disciples when the man they left everything for, gave themselves up for… died. They knew the truth; Jesus spoke of His death, but somehow it’s always harder to completely understand in the moment. It is usually in hindsight that things make sense to us.  All this Kingdom awe and momentum… and then Jesus was mocked, ridiculed, scourged, and slain.
    Things didn’t really happen in the way the disciples might have expected. The greatest thing occurred instead, too much for man to handle, too great and eternal. The resurrected Christ came to them with holes in his hands and the piercing in His side. He did signs in their presence. Jesus had conquered death.
    The disciples went back to Galilee. Maybe a lapse in time occurred... "now what?" I'm sure they never could have imagined the coming things in store for them to walk in.  They just went back to what they knew how to do, what was familiar: fishing. But, Jesus showed up; He always does. After the beautifully traumatic time of waiting and walking with Jesus into His death, He now says, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat.” He didn’t leave the disciples; He didn't forget them. The call to "follow me" was real and now the resurrected Jesus would fulfill the call in them, and finish the work He began through their lives.  ..."when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish."
    “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”- John 15:5