Who needs an icebox
when the plums
hang heavy
in the night-cooled orchard
dotted with dew
glistening
in the spare pink light
of dawn
so ripe
and so ready
their golden flesh
warming in the sun.
~EPG
Every morning I sit across from you
at the same small table,
the sun all over the breakfast things—
curve of a blue-and-white pitcher,
a dish of berries—
me in a sweatshirt or robe,
you invisible.
Most days, we are suspended
over a deep pool of silence.
I stare straight through you
or look out the window at the garden,
the powerful sky,
a cloud passing behind a tree.
There is no need to pass the toast,
the pot of jam,
or pour you a cup of tea,
and I can hide behind the paper,
rotate in its drum of calamitous news.
But some days I may notice
a little door swinging open
in the morning air,
and maybe the tea leaves
of some dream will be stuck
to the china slope of the hour—
then I will lean forward,
elbows on the table,
with something to tell you,
and you look up, as always,
your spoon dripping milk, ready to listen.
~Billy Collins “A Portrait of the Reader With a Bowl of Cereal”
Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
John 21:12
There are fewer more nurturing words than “time to eat.” Having someone care enough to cook a meal to feed body and soul is welcome indeed. So “come and have breakfast” after a long night of fishing must have been an irresistible invitation.
After Resurrection Day, Jesus appears to His followers on several occasions, but He is not always initially recognizable. The trigger for discerning who He is seems connected to sharing a meal.
This makes entire sense after His Last Supper with the disciples before His death. He makes it clear how He wants to be remembered, through a symbolic meal of bread and wine. So when He returns, when He breaks bread, cooks fish, and eats together with others, they recognize they are in the presence of the Lord.
In this instance, when the disciples have had a night of no success catching fish, He directs them to drop their nets yet again and suddenly there are more fish than they can handle. This is capped by His invitation: “Come and have breakfast”.
He then feeds them, both figuratively and literally.
Accepting the invitation is all that is asked of us. Who doesn’t want to have breakfast cooked for them?
Time to eat. Be filled. Never be hungry again.
Barnstorming 