Throughout time our lives have revolved around fishing. All the way back to biblical times men cast their nets in hopes of bringing in a mess of fish to feed the masses. Or for a little boy and girl sitting on the bank of a pond with cane poles and fresh worms, to catch supper.
As Old Man Winter winds down and the winds of March tumble in, I get the itch to drag out the poles and tackle box and take the boys on another fishing adventure. The water is still a bit cold for fish to bite much, but that hint of spring in the air makes me want to get to it.
When I was growing up we had a pond behind our house that my grandfather had dug many years before. I doubt he thought much at the time about grandchildren plopping down a hook with rolled up bread balls into the water. But that is what we did. A bucket of pond water, fresh bread, a hook, a cork, and a cane pole. We would catch the small brim, let them swim around in the bucket until we got tired, and then we would toss them back into the pond. It was a great way to spend a sunny afternoon once spring had sprung and we were heading into summer.
One of my favorite old black and white TV shows was The Andy Griffith Show. Many episodes were spent with Andy and his son casting a line. The show even began with Opie skipping rocks as they walked along the edge of a lake. The Sheriff had "gone fishing."
"Pa, what kind of bait are you puttin' on my line?"
"Why that's fish-catchin' bait. That's the idea, you know, to catch fish."
"That looks more like a piece of ham from our lunch. You're s'posed to use fish bait."
"Well now, son, all them fish ever see down there all day long's other fish, and they get mighty sick of it, too. Now, don't it just stand to reason that they might just perk up at the sight of a piece of meat?"
It was not an accident that Jesus used multiple fishing metaphors to speak to God's children. There are multiple great fishing stories in the New Testament. I believe every avid fisherman would have loved to be in the boat the day Jesus told his disciples to cast a net, and a massive load of fish were pulled in. Perhaps that's where the proverbial "fishing story" began. He not only referred to fishing but called his disciples to be fishers of men.
My mother loves telling the story about when my grandfather was courting my grandmother. He would ride on horseback to see her at the family home she shared with multiple brothers and sisters. One day when he was riding along a young boy asked, "Mr. Hall, you want to go fishing?" With his focus being on spending time with my grandmother, he said, "No, son. I've got fresh fish to fry, and the grease is hot."
And that was the start of it. That is where it all began for my family. He and Grandma had my mother who later delivered her only daughter who now has four sons and five grandchildren. That is one big fishing tale, and the grease certainly was hot.
