Winks From Scripture: God’s Subtle Work Among UsSample

God Winks in Our Inner Turmoil

Inner turmoil is a profound form of human suffering. Whether it’s looking back with regret on the mistakes we’ve made, or dealing with rejection, an existential crisis, or anything in between, the human race suffers from pain in the soul.

But there’s reason to hope. God winks in unusual ways when we find ourselves in distress.

In the Gospel of John, we discover Peter experiencing inner turmoil for having denied Christ. John makes use of a prop to show readers how God winks at the suffering apostle and initiates his healing and restoration.

In John 21, the Lord appears to the disciples after His resurrection. They are out fishing and He is on the shore, but they don’t realize it’s Him. He asks the disciples for fish, but they hadn’t caught any. In true Jesus fashion, He tells the disciples to cast their net to the right side of the boat. They do so and get a huge catch. They realize it’s the Lord and rush to shore.

Peter is especially excited. Jesus makes breakfast for them and reinstates Peter, who had recently denied Him. Great story, right? There’s something even better about it we shouldn’t overlook. It takes us into the psychology of Peter’s state of mind.

John indicates that Jesus has prepared breakfast on a “charcoal fire.” We might be tempted to read right over this, but this prop is a wink. John also mentioned a charcoal fire on the night Peter denied Jesus. The smell of the charcoal fire would have thrown Peter into inner turmoil, jogging his memory and taking him back to that night when he spinelessly denied his Lord.

Did Jesus use the charcoal to draw that inner turmoil out of Peter so He could confront it and restore him? Yep. The charcoal is another subtle wink. Jesus knew Peter’s pain, was familiar with his suffering, and wasn’t going to let him stay that way.

God knows our inner turmoil. Though it may feel like we are battling this suffering alone, God is at work in it, and He is with us. He has unusual ways of winking when our souls are shaded in darkness. These subtle winks give us the hope we need to heal.