A Tale of Two Fisherfolk
Posted by: ba <ba@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
COLUMN: Oliver's Twist
A Tale of Two Fisherfolk
by Barbara Oliver
The man gets up early in the morning, goes down to
the bay, tosses his seine out into the water, and
catches a net full of minnows. He puts them into a
tank and sells them to fishermen (and fisher
women). The fisher woman gets fifty or so minnows,
puts one little minnow on a hook and throws it out
into that same bay with the millions and millions
of minnows, shrimp, bugs, eggs, and other
disgusting delights that only a fish could love.
And miracle of miracles, she catches a fish!
Last week, my brother and I went on what will
become our annual fishing trip. Just the two of
us, or the three of us, if we can get my other
brother to go with us. My brother, Daryle, lives
about three hours from the bay off of the Gulf of
Mexico, and he has a boat. I have to admit to a
little trepidation about boating, but he let me
steer during this trip, which helped my confidence
quite a bit. Also, he knows I am afraid, so he
doesn't drive it too fast. We fish up in the
marshes for red fish, sea trout, flounder, and
anything else edible. He even caught a three-foot
shark once, which he released. Moral of that story
- don't fall out of the boat!
We had a great time getting sunburned, catching
fish, and catching up on old times. We caught 17
"keepers" over the course of three days. On
Wednesday, we came home fish-less. Thursday was a
good day with a total of 14 fish caught. In a fit
of misplaced enthusiasm, I threw the first one
back because it was "only" 16 inches long, so we
went home with 13 fish, mostly caught by Daryle.
Which I can't understand because we were fishing
in the same spot! Silly fish.
On Friday, I caught three fish to Daryle's zero!
Don't tell him, but I think it is because I was
singing my Fishy Song - "Fishy, fishy, fish-y.
Fishy, fishy, fish-y." Hey, don't laugh! It
worked!
It's funny how fishing has always been such an
important part of life. Men still go out in their
boats with nets and bring home shrimp, tuna,
salmon, crab, lobster, and a variety of other sea
creatures.
Funny, also, that miracle of fish-catching. You
drop your hook into the water, and somehow there
are fish to take the bait. I have to wonder, how
does that fish find that one little bait at the
end of my fishing line?
Christianity is a lot like that. I guess that is
why Jesus called it fishing for men. We think that
there is no way anyone will hear the words of
faith we drop into that vast sea of attractions
and temptations we call the world. How can anyone
find the truth with so much "bait" dangling in
front of humanity's face.
Peter, Andrew, James and John were coming home
fish-less - until Jesus told them where to cast
their nets. That's the way with fishing -
sometimes the fish just aren't where you are!
Jesus knew where the fish were. And he still does!
With Jesus telling us where to cast our nets, how
can we go wrong. "Go into all the world" (Mark
16:15). If we do that, we will catch more than we
can handle, and we will have to call for our
brethren to help us with the harvest! Now that
would be a great fish story!
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