December 10, 2021 – Click here to listen
Yesterday I went to the Bahamas for a day trip leaving two hours before dawn. The fishing was spectacular, and we caught all the big wahoo we wanted. We encountered several big sharks that had breakfast on us and one of them, (an 8-foot bull shark), got accidentally foul hooked in his dorsal fin when he attacked on of the fish we were reeling in. We fought him to the side and cut the hook out of his dorsal. (It sounds easier than it was to accomplish this feat.) He was wild and beautiful, and it was quite the sight to see him thrashing around, slamming the side of the boat with his tail, and splashing us with water.
One interesting thing that happened while we were fighting with the shark was a small sea bird flew to our boat and landed. It seemed exhausted and when we got through fighting with the shark I slowly walked to the front of the boat where he was sitting and threw some Cheese crackers that I had crumbled up into smaller pieces to him. He ignored my food offering and one of my buddies said he looked thirsty. I inched closer and then gingerly picked him up and my friend poured some water into his hands and the little guy drank a few swallows. I gently set him back down on the boat gunnel and he flew away.
I hope he made it safely to land or somewhere he could rest because he looked thoroughly exhausted. I thought of the Bible mentioning that a bird cannot fall to the ground without God seeing it and how He provides everything they need for them even though they are insignificant in the big scheme of things and yet concludes that we are far more valuable to Him than a sparrow.
The natural world is rather brutal. Little fish feed on living organisms such as plankton. Bigger fish eat them, and bigger fish eat them. All of nature is like that. The ultimate predator, mankind, is perhaps the most brutal. As I consider the natural order of the world after the fall, the only figure in history that takes the opposite approach is Jesus. He is love and He teaches that all life is sacred to Him. (Are you listening abortion advocates?) He entrusted His creation to us and gave us dominion over all the plants and animal kingdom, but sin has ruined it. It was not God’s desire for us to behave that way.
We began heading home around 2:00 pm yesterday and figured we would be pulling into my dock around 4:00 pm. When we were still fifty miles out One of my engines seemed sluggish and then the entire lower unit, (transmission and driveshaft for you landlubbers), went out with a loud grinding, clanging noise. I have four engines, so I just raised that one engine and was going to come home on three. We got going gain on the three remaining engines and then I got a low oil pressure warning on another motor leaving just two engines to make the trip. Our maximum speed went from 42 mph to 8 mph. We arrived at my dock at 9:30 last night tired and hungry.
As we slowly made our way in for the long drive we spoke of our day. It was a great day of fishing and though it was a shame that it was marred by the engine failures; however, we all agreed that it could have been so much worse, and we could actually still be out there.
I thanked God last night and again this morning for this adventure. I realize that the good and the bad are served up in this world and I take it with a grain of salt because I know that like a sparrow Jesus had his eye on us out in the pitch-black dark in the middle of the ocean and loved us so much He got us home. Now if He will just help me find the parts I need to get my boat ready for another run. In this age of shortages, it will be no small task, but hey, He is in control and no task is beyond His capable abilities – I’m very good with that.
I’d like to close with the lyrics to the hymn, “His Eye on the Sparrow”. I urge you to go online and listen to the Whitney Houston version of this beautiful song:
Why should I feel discouraged,
Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely,
And long for heaven, heaven, and home,
When Jesus is my portion,
My constant Friend is He;
Oh, oh-oh, his eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watched, watched it over me.
I sing because I’m happy
I sing because I’m free
For His eye, his eye is on the sparrow,
And I know, I know He watches over me.
Matt. 6:25
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these . . .
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!