Empty Places

 Since the pandemic began there have been a great number of empty places in my life. These were places that I went shopping or planned travel or visited with friends in my past life.  Now there are a lot of Zoom meetings and filling time taking care of sorting things or sewing or mulling over past mistakes. There are empty places.

After the Resurrection Simon Peter went fishing.  He wasn't fishing for men or being the rock upon which the church was built.  He was back at his old profession, fisherman.  Perhaps he was sorting things out or clearing his head. Perhaps he didn't know where to begin on the mission Christ gave him. The disciples went with him, fishing.  They caught nothing.  The had empty nets, an empty place.  Christ appeared and told them to lower nets on the right side.  They caught a lot of fish.  Christ filled the empty places.  So, instead of setting up a great fishing monopoly on the Sea of Galilee, they left the nets and followed Christ's call.  I recently heard a talk about how there had to be the empty nets, the empty place so that Christ could fill it. If the nets had been full, there would have been no room for Christ.  We need empty nets.  We need empty places.

I have empty places now.  My nets are empty.  But only in some ways because my life has gotten a lot busier lately. Still there is an empty-ness that wasn't there before the pandemic.  I have empty places.  I am waiting for Christ's call to fill those empty places.  I wait.