"Children, you have no fish, have you?" "No," came the reply across the waters -- apparently barren of fish.

"Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." It must have been a very frustrating fishing trip for the disciples to listen to an unrecognizable stranger. But you know the story -- they couldn't haul it in, it was such a catch.

John finally recognized the stranger. "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard it, he put his clothes on (for the scripture states he had been naked) and jumped into the sea. They had toiled all night. Casting the net, dragging it in. Casting the net, dragging it in. Peter had to have been nearly at the point of physical exhaustion.

And the emotional upheaval of the days before -- the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus; Peter's denial; his guilt and fear; the resurrection appearances; the uncertainty about the future; the frustration of empty net after empty net. Add all this to his physical fatigue, and surely, surely he must have been completely washed out. Maybe that's why he impulsively dove into the water one hundred yards away from shore -- that's a long swim in anybody's pool.

Besides all this, he was swimming in his clothes. I'd rather fish with my clothes on and then skinny-dip than do as Simon Peter did -- fish with no clothes on and put them on to swim. An emotionally and physically exhausted man weighted down with clothes -- swimming toward Jesus. But he made it!

You see, he was swimming toward Jesus. His gaze was fixed on the Master. The Risen Christ was the target he aimed himself for through the churning sea and undertow. Swimming toward Jesus, he made it.

And we can make it, too, if we swim toward Jesus. Swimming toward Jesus is dragging yourself out of bed after a sleepless night and bravely facing the next day, even if that day looks darker for you than all your yesterdays. Swimming toward Jesus is diving into a situation where you may be attacked for getting involved, but you know you must, keeping ever before you your calling to follow a Master who led the way.

Swimming toward Jesus is following His commandment to love your neighbor and yourself when you can't stand either one. Swimming toward Jesus is letting Him bless you in your grief because He said He would -- even when you simply cannot understand your loss. Swimming toward Jesus is letting Him be so focused in your life that you really begin to believe you can have no anxiety about tomorrow, that nothing can separate you from His love, that you will be blessed when others persecute you, that if you seek His kingdom you'll have what you need in the seeking, that He has gone before you to prepare a room in the house with many rooms. Swimming toward Jesus. The litany could continue, but there is another thought.

It came beautifully and powerfully in Frederick Buechner's new novel The Wizard's Tide.* This is a story about young Teddy Schroeder and his sister, nicknamed Bean. Buechner describes the sorrows and joys of a family struggling to find unity and love during the disastrous events of the Great Depression.