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
