I love fishing

Today my thoughts are about fishing.
Any of you who have known me for any time at all will know that I love to fish. It is one of my passions but unfortunately not something I get a lot of time to do. You would think that because fishing is one of my passions, that I might make more time to do it, and perhaps I should. Then again, maybe it’s the rarity of it, which makes me so passionate about it.

One of my favorite movies is called “A River Runs through It”. It’s based on the semi-autobiographical novella written by Norman Maclean. One of my favorite parts of the movie is from the opening scene. Here is the quote:

“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”

I believe the reason fly-fishing appeals so much to me is because of the beauty that I find in it. There is something about standing in a cool mountain stream as the fog comes off the water and watching a trout rise to take your fly. I think it’s the beauty of standing in the middle of God’s creation, making the perfect cast, with the right fly and watching as everything you’ve planned and worked for come together in that one perfect moment. That wonderful moment when a fish graces you with the pleasure of his leaping presence at the end of your line. Then there is the moment of release, when the battle is over and you are thankful for those few short minutes of being allowed to watch the gracefulness and power of one of God’s creations. There are even moments when I make that perfect cast and my fly, created by my own hands, settles softly on the water and drifts into the path of a fish as he rises ever so gently to take it in his mouth, in that one small moment, sometimes, I feel beautiful.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I think that God created within each of us something that yearns for beauty. It could even go back to our exodus from the Garden and our soul remembers the beauty that we enjoyed while there and it aches to have that beauty again. As much as I love fishing and enjoy the beauty that I find there, it could never compare to the beauty that comes from having a relationship with Christ. I never feel more beautiful then those moments when I’m fulfilling the purpose for which God created me and I can feel his pleasure.

Matthew 4:18-20 (New International Version)
The Calling of the First Disciples
18As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20At once they left their nets and followed him.