Casting Our Net...

A frosty October evening...

Sitting by the woodstove...reading...

Feeling toasty warm...

A voice in the stillness...

My sweetheart...

"Tide's just about right... 

Be a good night to go get some bait..."

My family enjoys two 

 activities every fall...

Which also help provide food

throughout the winter...

Hunting for deer and fishing for smelts.

 

 

My husband grew up

in the woods and on the water...

So...if he says that it is 

a good night for bait...

Well, I just know we'll come home with bait!

For, you see,

You can't go smelting...

Unless you have minnows 

to catch the smelts with...

 

And you can't catch minnows

Unless you cast your net 

into the stream...

 

So, in the cold and the dark...

down to the banks of the water

we trudged in our hip boots...

flashlights and bucket in hand...

To "cast our net..."

As I held the flashlight 

in the tall sea grass...

and my dearheart "dipped"...

 

I couldn't help but think of 

the story told in John 21...

When the disciples were having 

no luck with their fishing...

And our Lord told them to cast

their nets on the other side of the boat.

So many lessons from that 

one little account...

A lesson on how important 

it is to listen and be obedient...

Now, if I had ignored 

my husband's voice and

had stayed by that toasty warm fire...

We would not be able to go

smelting this evening...

Just as the disciples 

would not have caught any fish...

If they had not listened to Jesus

and moved their nets 

to the other side of the boat.

We all know that Jesus was more

than capable of making the fish swim to the men...

Or, jump in the boat even, for that matter,

But this was a lesson in obedience.

Another wonderful lesson from this story...

We must "cast our nets" where the fish are!

 

My husband knows the exact spot

on the right side of the little bridge...

where the minnows swim up 

the salt water stream to hunker down 

in the mud when it gets cold...

It would do us no good to try dipping

for minnows on the left side of the little bridge...

Just as the disciples soon discovered

that they only needed to move their nets 

to the other side of the boat...

 

 

 

If we are going to receive the answer

 God has for us, 

We are going to have to do what He says...

 When he says it...

And where He says to do it. 

 

I'll let you know

How the smelts are running tonight!

They were hoping the minnows were for them!

 

"And He said unto them, 

Cast the net on the right side of the ship, 

and ye shall find. They cast therefore, 

and now they were not able to draw

 it for the multitude of fishes...'

John 21:6