Wow, it has been a long time since I wrote on this blog...I thought this may be an interesting story to tell -
Over the last 3 months, I've gone out ice fishing several times. Never catching anything. Often the other people I go with catch fish, and I like that. It adds a bit of excitement to a quiet time. Then a week ago I decided to go out by myself. Just some quiet time, a chance to get away and commune with God. Nice and quiet, no one around – the odd bird singing, but that is few and far between. It's cold here – really cold. The ice is 4 feet thick. The warmest day fishing was -7 C. Most days were between -20 and -12C. (Not including the windchill).
So there I am, Snowshoeing, the snow a couple feet deep, and drifted on the frozen lake. A light wind, but it is enough to bring a bit of a chill. I walked out to the middle of the lake, drilled a couple holes, and started fishing. Fortunately a few days before I went out, some others had been to the same place. The holes were only slightly frozen (a few inches of ice) and they were easy to punch through.There I sat. Sled in front of me, snowshoes sticking up from the snow to create a wind shield and my portable heater pumping out some warm air. For an hour, nothing...It was a nice time to look around at the trees. The sun was behind the clouds and no one...absolutely no one was around. No snowmobiles, no cars, no trucks, no other fishermen....Just me and God. You never know how loud silence is, until there is nothing making a sound.
I prayed, and prayed and prayed some more. Fishing was secondary – an excuse to get away and be alone with God. It was really nice.
Then I heard the ringing of a bell....ding ding...ding...ding ding... That's when it hit me - “I had a fish on !” I have bells on the end of my ice fishing rods in case I get a fish on and I am not looking at it....well it worked.
I looked over to see my rod tip in the hole...the pole still in the holder but bending and bouncing violently. I ran over and grabbed my line by hand. A few seconds later, my first fish caught ice fishing was laying beside me. I was happy. Finally, I got that gorilla off my back.
Of course I had to take a picture of it, so I did. Then I released the Northern Pike back down the hole, into the lake.
I fished and prayed and enjoyed His creation for another 2 hours – not even a nibble...That was ok.
I went home, and had really enjoyed my time on the lake.
The next day I was talking to a friend and I had told him about catching my first fish ice fishing. He said one thing that intrigued me. He asked me what time I caught my fish – I looked at the picture that I took and the time stamp was 13:51. So that means I caught the fish between 13:47 and 13:51. He said to me – look up that scripture.
So I typed 13:47-51 into Google and guess what came up. Matthew 13:47-51 Parable of the Fishing Net :) Here is that scripture -
Matthew 13:47-51 Parable of the Fishing Net
47 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. 48 When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away.49 That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, 50 throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 Do you understand all these things?”
“Yes,” they said, “we do.”
I sit at the computer thinking – “You are so good Lord !” “You even speak to me when I am fishing :)”
There is a lot in this passage of Scripture...next Blog, I'll expand on this passage - Be blessed friends !
