During those long Summer days, My Dad would sometimes come home from a busy day at Norwood Medical Clinic and say, “let’s go fishing!” In addition to being a physician he was also an avid sportsman. It was how he unwound after a stressful day of doctoring. We would hook up the boat and head to the lake. Sometimes we would go right down the street to the boat ramp if we were bowfishing. Sometimes it was a few miles away if we were fishing the mouth of the creeks that fed the Tennessee River and Ft. Loudon Lake. At Stock Creek one evening, I casted my lure and BAM! a fish hit it so hard, I almost dropped my rod. I began to reel and the fish just kept spooling the line…zzzzz… Dad was so excited. He kept saying, "keep his head up!” as I struggled to stay upright fighting the fish. I would reel a little, then the fish would take off again. My dad was sure by the fight of this fish that it was the biggest bass he had seen come out of that lake. The fish and I fought for several more minutes and when I got it to the boat, we discovered it was a freshwater drum. Though this fish is the bane of serious bass fishermen, it sure was fun to catch. It generally is called a trash or “rough” fish rather than a game fish. Drum are not considered a good fish to eat unless you have a Cajun chef close by, because they apparently call it a “gaspergou” and can make it quite tasty. This fish is a freshwater relative of the better tasting saltwater red drum found at seafood restaurants.
From the Bible we can see that the Israelites are generally land dwellers, sheep herders and farmers from way back. But when Jesus came, He found a handful of Jewish fishermen living on the Sea of Galilee as the first ones He called to be his disciples. He was trying to describe what His Kingdom was like to them and said, “... the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 13:47–50 NIV) The amazing thing to me is that Jesus loves all of us and can take the trashiest of us “rough” fish and make us good. Jesus is in the business of changing bad wicked people into good and righteous. The truth is, we are all bad (not one of us is good according to Romans. 3:23), until we belong to Him and His connection with us changes our wicked hearts to make us good. He pays the price and suffers because of our badness. Those who belong to Him He saves from an eternity of weeping and gnashing of teeth in a fiery horrible place called Hell and lets us hang out with Him and all those who belong to Him in a wonderful place called heaven. Gaspergou and Red Drum will all be considered either good or bad. We will either be considered wicked or righteous at the end of our lives on earth and the only way to be righteous is through a real loving relationship with Jesus, He is the only one who can make us right. He died to make everyone good, but we have to choose to belong to Him, He won’t force us to be one of His good fish.
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!
