Lessons from a Rod and Reel

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It is very strange…that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting. 
 -Elizabeth Taylor, A Wreath of Roses

It was a day pulled from the pages of my childhood, a recipe for nostalgia: cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, food and fishing poles. We had gathered to celebrate birthdays and to mark the end of summer. Soon the big kids would return to school, but on this day the only school in sight was a crew of swimming fish beneath the ripples of the silent farm pond. 

Grandpa baited the hooks. Grandma provided the snacks. And God provided the sunshine.

“How LONG does it take to catch a fish?” Hannah sighed thirty seconds after her red and white bobber touched the water. 

“It takes some time,” Grandpa coaxed. “We just have to wait.”
 
“I thought I’d be a really good fisher,” my thirdborn admitted a moment later. “But I’m really bored, so I must not be so good at it after all… Do you think if I was quieter we’d catch a fish faster?”
 
Grandpa smiled and raised his eyebrows. “It wouldn’t hurt,” he encouraged.
 
Hannah pursed her lips and studied the water. “Maybe the fish are all over there.” She pointed across the pond to where her Dad was pulling a wiggling catch out of the water.
 
“There are fish here, too,” Grandpa said. “We’ll catch one in time.”
 
Hannah looked again. “There’s not even any bubbles here, Grandpa. Are you SURE we’re gonna catch something?”
 
“Just sit down and relax a bit,” Grandpa urged. “It’s a beautiful day.”
 
Hannah sat. Then stood. Then sat. Then stood.
 
“Waiting is SO HARD,” she declared with a harrumph.
 
 

Moments later the round bobber took a dive beneath the murky waters. Grandpa grabbed Hannah’s pole and showed the not-so-patient fisher-girl how to reel in her catch.

Sighs turned to smiles. Boredom to delight. Hannah dangled the fish on her pole and posed for Grandma’s camera.  We cheered. She danced. Grandpa grinned.  Hannah declared that maybe her life calling was catching fish after all. And I marveled at the similarities between my daughter and me. 

“How long will it take for you to answer my prayer, Lord?”
 
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
 
“Are you sure you heard me the first time? I don’t even see one single sign that You’re at work here. I could use a few ripples of hope, Lord”
 

“Wait for the LORD and keep his way.” Psalm 37:34

“You just worked a miracle in HER life, why won’t you DO SOMETHING in mine?”

“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Romans 8:25

“Maybe if I get up off my knees and just work a little harder…”

“Just sit with me a while. Enjoy the beauty of my presence.”

“I want ANSWERS!”

“I want your heart.”

The Overflow: 

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ”
                                          -Matthew 7:9-11

Alicia

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