God’s Coloring Book
The Gospel According to Dolly Series
What happens when the songs of Dolly Parton meet the stories of Jesus? You get a gospel full of heart. The Gospel According to Dolly is a worship series that brings together scripture and song to tell the good news in a new key. Dolly’s lyrics do more than entertain. They testify. They speak of heartbreak and healing, of heaven and home, of a Savior who never walks away. In her music, we hear echoes of the gospel. In the gospel, we find the kind of grace Dolly sings about. This series invites us to listen closely and see Jesus through the lens of faith, tenderness, and ordinary acts of love.
God’s Coloring Book: A World Colored with Redemption
Dolly Parton’s song God’s Coloring Book is full of wonder. She sings about mountains and trees, stars and babies, all as if they were brushstrokes from God. She reminds us that creation is not something that happened once. It is something God is still doing. God keeps coloring the world with beauty and care.
That is what we see in the story of Peter in John chapter twenty-one. The disciples have been given a great commission. They’ve been told they have the power that Jesus had to heal and spread the Good News. They’ve received the Holy Spirit and been told to go and forgive the sins of others.
John 19:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Even though Peter has been given the Holy Spirit and commanded to forgive the sins of others, He doesn’t forgive his own sins. All the disciples, but Peter especially, must have carried so much regret. He had promised to stand by Jesus and then denied him three times.
So they go back to what they know.
Don’t we have a tendency to do that, too? We are the last to forgive ourselves, and so often hesitant to forgive others.
We go back to what we know.
In John 21: 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
They fish all night and catch nothing. But Jesus appears at dawn. He calls to them from the shore and tells them to try again. When they do, the nets are full. Then Jesus does something even more beautiful.
John 21: 9 When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”
He cooks them breakfast. He feeds their hunger before speaking to their wounds. And then he gives Peter a chance to speak love where he had once spoken fear.
John 21: 15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Jesus does not erase or deny Peter’s past. Jesus, doesn’t do denial. Jesus does redemption.
That is what redemption looks like. Not hiding the broken parts or mistakes, but making something new out of them. That is what Jesus still does. He colors our stories with mercy and grace. Even the parts we wish we could undo. Even the pages we want to keep hidden. None of it is beyond the reach of love.
What if your regrets are not the end of the story?
What if they are the place where re-creation begins?
The coloring book is still open. All stories are open books for redemption.
