God's little winks

Today started out as any normal Sunday. Wake up, get the kids ready, get to church and worship. Before I fully get going most days; I always pray that God place into my heart something to learn from each day. Today, was one of the days that prayer was said. Tim spoke about hope and worshiping God. A quote given today's sermon was

"I know that people say they don't need church, but anytime we gather together, God promises to be with us. What could be more enticing than God's presence? Why wouldn't we go where God promises to be?" (Robin Lemke, Seattle, 29, Quoted in "Relevant Church")

I was blessed enough to receive Gods presence in his full glory from an unlikely place, fishing with my family. Yesterday while running around playing baseball in the park with my son we came across a little ditch running right next to the field (about 100 yard from my house). It's a spring fed ditch, and of course as all kids do my eldest son wanted to check it out. Surprisingly enough it had fish in it! Here a ditch, about 3 miles from the river had a thriving community of our aquatic friends. I promised my kids we would go fishing after church.

We had no shrimp or normal bait, so I took a chicken breast, nuked it and brought it along. We get to the ditch and I rig the kids poles up with a bobber and bait their hooks. They both cast in their lines and we wait. About 30 seconds later Dylan's bobber wooshes under the water. He jumps up, flails about and reels in a sunfish about the size of his fist. He starts pumping his fist, and yelling "YEAH!!!". In his world, you would have thought he just won a million bucks he was so happy. I reset the hook, cast in the bobber and a little while passes and his bobber streaks under the water. I then hear the drag rolling off his reel and the little ultralight pole bent downward at a fairly sharp angle. Dylan fights the fish for a few seconds and reels it towards the bank of the ditch. Lo and behold my son just caught a 9 inch Guadalupe Bass in a DITCH in a neighborhood on Chicken and a float. What he said at that point brought a catch to my throat "Dad, you are the best dad ever, I never knew fishing was this much fun. Can we keep fishing?" We stayed at that ditch for about 2 hours and he ended up catching 7 fish. My youngest son didn't catch any, but that was okay with him too. He had more fun chasing after the dragonfly's and drinking my wife's cold drink. My wife as usual supervised us all to make sure none of her males did anything stupid (as you know males normally do).

Looking back now at this little slice of life it's made me realize how God's winks come in such unexpected forms. The peace, love and happiness I felt sitting at that little ditch next to Pahmeyer road is indescribable. I can truthfully say that this fishing trip was hands down the BEST fishing trip i've ever had. I've fished all my life, offshore, lakes, fly fishing, you name it i've probably fished it and caught it. But in the park, fishing the ditch will live on in my memory forever. Now I see why fishing was so special for my Mom. She never caught much, but was always willing to go. Now, as a father I see why she looked so forward to those times. So Mom, thank you; I do now understand.

You would have thought I just won a gold medal by how I felt. Spending that time with people I loved, surrounded by Gods glory and letting the world pass us by. Worshping God isn't just about rote readings of the bible or going to church x times a week. It's about spending time with friends and loved ones and making the best out of what we have. It's about thanking God for whatever we have as well. For sometimes, its through the smallest things, that we receive the biggest winks from God.