He Was There Before You Arrived
There’s a detail in John 21 that most people read straight past.
It’s a single Greek word. Two syllables. And John only uses it twice in his entire gospel.
The first time, it describes the fire Peter was standing at when he said, three times, “I do not know the man.” The cold courtyard. The worst night of his life.
The second time? It’s the fire Jesus has already lit on the beach in chapter 21 - warming, waiting, breakfast ready - when Peter and the disciples drag their nets in after a long, empty night.
John is a careful writer. He doesn’t repeat unusual words by accident. So this is no coincidence.
Jesus didn’t choose a neutral spot for this reunion. He chose a charcoal fire. The same kind. The same word. A deliberate echo of the very moment Peter had been trying to forget.
Not to shame him. Not to say, “Remember what you did?”
But to say something far more powerful: I know exactly where you fell, and I have come to that exact place to find you.
Forgiveness, it turns out, doesn’t arrive from a safe distance. It walks into the very ground of your failure and sits down beside you in it.
George Matheson put it beautifully: “O joy that seekest me through pain.” Not around it. Not after it’s tidied away. Through it.
Is there a place or a memory you’ve been quietly walking around the edge of? Jesus was there before you arrived. The fire is already burning.
👉 Watch the full five-minute devotional here:
With you in it.
Rob
Read this week’s devotionals here - https://open.substack.com/pub/battledrilldevotional/p/have-you-ever-felt-like-youve-blown?r=643q6o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true