Last week we had a conundrum on our hands, a real pickle if you will. With all the rain and being at camp, we had to come up with ways to get out of the trailer before we lost our minds. One of the things we could still do was go fishing even if everything else around us was soaked, being at the dock became a treasured time. So why was it a conundrum you may ask? Here is a visual to give you an answer. Picture with me 6 kids under 10 years old on a 12 by 12 dock.
Hooks flying everywhere, the continual sound of them screaming “I lost my bait again” and the impatience they all had when every cast did not yield a fish. (Bringing up memories of how when I was a kid I hooked my dad in his forearm as I went to cast. How many have experienced that before?) Luckily my father in law Bob was smart enough to decide not to put a hook on the twins line. They wanted to be there but at 3 years old we knew that was asking for trouble, so instead he tied one of their plastic toy fish to each of their lines. So for them every time they threw it in, wala, a fish. The only problem was that when they would bring it in and set it on the dock, everyone knew it was a a “dead fish” as the girls chose to call it. Somehow Elliston managed to lose her fish in the water and we saw the bright green piece of plastic sinking to the bottom, “My fishy died, my fishy died.”
On the other hand, when the boys would cast a fish in, no matter how big or small it was they would set it on the dock and it would be very much alive. Flopping around everywhere, the kids running up to touch it but then watching then run away as the fish would move back and forth. The first time it happened to Silas, he literally ran out of his shoes. The amount of noise coming off our dock, no wonder our kids didn’t catch to many fish on our adventures. Definitely something we still have to work on as Lindsey would continue to remind me, fishing is meant to be a relaxing, peaceful time. I guess I can at least say it was a memory being made.
As we left I started thinking about this idea of the “dead fish.” No matter how much the girls would twist it around of pick it up and down, that fish was still dead. There was no life to it, no breath, no movement, nothing. Scripture is filled with references of God breathing life. In the beginning God formed man out of dirt and breathed life into his nostrils. In Ezekiel we read of God bringing dead bones to life. In the Gospels we read of Jesus calling Lazarus from the grave. Bringing what was dead to life.
Looking around at today’s world, it has me thinking about how many people out there are like the dead plastic fish. They look like a fish, but hey have never allowed God to breath “true life” into them. They are manipulated and influenced by everything others say, or social media tells them they should be, just like the plastic fish being thrown around by the girls. Zombies, walking around not realizing or understanding what God truly has for them. A shell of what he designed and created you to be.
God wants to bring you to life, to breath new life into you.
To close out today I want to finish with these lyrics that we have all sung before,
“It’s your breath in our lungs.” Do we believe that? Or how about these ones from Lauren Daigle, “We call out to dry bones come alive.”
We can all sing them at the top of our lungs in church but do we allow others around us to see that we have been brought to life by Jesus. Are our lives showing that we are no longer that dead fish, but God has now put breath in our lungs. Church, it’s time we COME ALIVE. I hear it now the sound of “Dry bones rattling.”
Amen!