Hidden Treasure

Since my retirement began I have been going through all of my "stuff", weeding out things I don't need or no longer find useful. My wife calls it "death cleaning" - getting rid of stuff so my kids don't have to go through it after I'm gone. Ha ha! I call it "a treasure hunt."

It's amazing some of the things we can find when we go through our old junk. Some of it is just plan garbage but then there are things we find that are absolutely priceless. Like the hidden treasure I found yesterday in my dad's old fishing creel.

I was in Michigan last month, visiting my mother. She asked me to go through the garage and take whatever I wanted of my dad's stuff. So I grabbed his creel. My dad and I used to go fishing together. We each had a creel (the bag you carry the fish you caught in). Now I had two. I took it just to get it out of her garage.

Well, I picked it up today to put it someplace else and I felt something hard inside. "It better not be a fish!" I thought. Luckily is was just a small box, but what a box! It was my dad's fly-box. There were probably a couple hundred flies in there! Wet flies, dry flies, but they were all  flies my dad had used.

As I looked through his fly collection I found one very special fly. Nothing eye catching by any means but it was a fly that I had made him years ago. How cool and yet somehow humbling. Useless to some, yet precious to me.

In the book of 2nd Kings there is a story about Josiah. He was 8 years old when he became king. He had someone go through HIS stuff and they found the Book of the Law. Hidden treasure! He read it and found out that he and his people had been living contrary to God's wishes all their lives. He immediately felt convicted and humbled himself before the Lord.

Repentance is an amazing thing. It is such a blessing to finally be doing what is right in God's eyes. It's a relief. Being forgiven, even punished for our sins, is worth it in the end, if we are doing what God desires for us to do.

Finding my dad's box of flies instantly took me back to the Middle Branch River in Michigan where my dad taught me how to fish. He was watching me when I caught my first fish. What a blessing it is to do what is right in our Father's eyes - both our earthly father's and our Heavenly Father's.

"19 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord." - 2 Kinds 22:19

There is nothing like doing what is right, right there in front of your father. Hmm. Maybe it's time to go fishing again . . . and remember that simpler time, when everything was . . . well, it was perfect.

Fishing With Father - A River Runs Through It

The Vanishing Point

I went trout fishing this past Sunday evening. All by myself. I hadn't gone fishing for a long, long time. Since my dad and I went fishing years ago I think. He's been gone a few years now. I miss fishing with my dad.

There is a really nice trout stream a few miles from my house. A really nice fishing hole too. The river makes a turn to the right at a large boulder. The current has cut a deep hole there where the trout seek refuge from the hot summer sun. That's where I found myself Sunday night.

As I cast my fly I noticed how my fly line, so distinct and obvious when it is near to me, disappeared, vanishing into the depths of the river. I began to think how that disappearing line is like so many of our relationships. Not only our earthly relationships but our relationship with God as well.

Have you lost relationships over the years? Why is that? I think it's because not enough effort is placed in maintaining those relationships, either by one party or the other . . . or both.

How quickly relationships and memories can fade with time. My return to the trout stream that day was a purposeful act, that of a son desiring to go fishing one more time with his father. But more than that, it was an earthly son longing for a deeper, more meaningful relationship with his heavenly father. I think all those things were accomplished that day.

After Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, He returned to be with His disciples several times. Why? I think it was to keep their relationship alive, to teach them a few things but mainly to encourage them and simply to love them. So it should be with ALL of our relationships.

We can't allow our most treasured relationships get to the vanishing point. We need to nurture them like Jesus did. We should show and tell others we love them while we have the chance. We can do so simply by being with them and loving them right where they are. As a father teaches his son to fish, so we must tend to our relationships. In doing so, we will find our relationship with our Heavenly Father will grow as well.

"4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out 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, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead." - John 21:4-14

Particularly Good To Me - A River Runs Through It