We tend to remember seemingly trivial details from the most important moments of our lives. I remember laying off-white 12×12 floor tiles in our small kitchen the day before our daughter was born. She came early, and I didn’t finish the job until much later.

Some of the disciples, adrift after the crucifixion and resurrection, decided to spend an evening fishing. Skunked all night, at first light a distant man on shore hollered at them to throw their net on the other side of the boat. Why not? As they did so, the net swelled with fish and they realized Jesus stood with them once again.

They rowed in, then Simon Peter hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them.

This detail concerning fish stuck in John’s mind. Not just the amount of fish, but the size (Jesus ain’t sendin’ no minnows). A joyous reunion marked by a miraculous catch, one these particular followers of Jesus—fishermen all—never forgot.

Later, as they spread throughout the world preaching about Jesus, and they met their deaths one-by-one for doing so, they burned with conviction remembering the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, capped by a cookout on the beach featuring 153 fish.

John 21 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2021

Photo by Jakub Kapusnak