The Pelican is an odd bird. Big and heavy, dives like an Olympic medallist, and has that disproportionately long, awkward bill… Stranger still, that bill has a stretch capacity for shovelling fish down its slender throat that has to be seen to be believed.
Despite its awkward, gangly appearance, the Pelican is a masterpiece of design excellence. Not the fastest flyer, but a highly efficient fish hunter.
This one is a Dalmatian Pelican, hosted by the Wetlands Centre near here; I have also been thrilled to watch wild Brown Pelicans just off the Californian coast. Their flock display of formation flying and fish-diving was truly spectacular. Then the flock lumbered into the air, heavy laden in belly and bill, and came back to dock to feed the young ‘uns and boast of their catch to the pier fishermen (who couldn’t compete).
Pelicans have thrived for untold thousands of years with the singular stretchy bills that make them instantly recognisable. I remember a childhood rhyme about “its bill holds more than its belly can” – a fond memory!
In one of the last resurrection appearances of Jesus, John tells of an outing by some of the disciples. Tellingly, they caught nothing. Jesus appeared to them, standing on the beach, and challenged them to cast the nets once more (despite them being knackered after an all-nighter). Obediently, they did… read on…
Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there- Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”
“We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night. At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?”
“No,” they replied. Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.
John 21 v1-6
An amazing miracle. A lesson to Simon Peter: Jesus had called him and his brothers to become “fishers of men.” As it turned out, the three years Jesus spent shaping his apprentices was time well spent. They were formed into perfectly equipped, well designed, agents of change and mission. Not the kind of people that religious “experts” might have selected… but perfect for the task of proclaiming the “Good News” of Jesus, and for helping to build the Kingdom of God.
Perhaps you and I are better designed for serving Christ than we think. Willing obedience, and costly hard work required, yes. But guided and directed by Christ, empowered by His Spirit, and with the loving compassion of the Father in our hearts… watch out, world, here we come!
The Reflectionary 