Little fish big lake

I paddled across the lake with the realization that I did not bring an anchor. The wind was seemingly subtle but the waves were anything but. If the boat got sideways we spun quickly around if I quit paddling and tried to fish. Eventually I settled in against the reeds and shoreline to fish. I finally landed a fish; both the word landed and fish used loosely. It was an evening on the lake filled with memories. On the way up north we got the news Mr Jim Gillespie had passed. They had become dear friends when the kids were younger and we loved them both. Memories of picnics at our place, walking each morning in the mall them McDonald’s for coffee. Not to forget the many times Jim would bring his canoe out to store it over the winter at the farm and tell us he didn’t get it in the water. One spring when he called to say he was coming out to pick it up, we quickly put it in the swimming pool so he could at least say it had been in water that season. Eventually he let us buy it and bring it to the cabin. I always think of him when I look at the green scanoe and we watch a bunch of people take off in the water and it goes gliding across the lake.

Last night I caught the fish. A little fish in a big lake. That’s us in life. If you figure the lake is 150 acres, 10-12 feet deep in some places, 4-6′ deep everywhere that little fish is pretty insignificant in life. And yet, that fish is important. Either that fish will grow to become a beautiful bass of which someone will catch later or it will be food for another fish to live and grow. That fish although insignificant has a part that needs to be lived out. Big lake, little fish; still important in the scheme of life. I think often that I am just a little fish in a big world. We listened to stories of aunt Shirley and it reminded me that she made every inch of use of her little fish life in this big world. Her neighbors, her friends, church people and family gained from her simply being content to be a little fish in a big lake. She didn’t want to be a big fish, just the kind of fish God made her. We all seem to think that we could be something else better than what we are. I can imagine that little fish wanted to be a northern, or a sunny or a crappie; who wants to be a minnow that’s small and chased by everyone? I would love to be taller, thinner, smarter, richer, have more friends or be in a different lake. Yet, God put me, a little fish in my lake to be the best little fish I could be for as long as He needs me to be that little fish. I can’t think about what others do, I need to remove myself from the comparison game and be content with the lake and the job of my day to day world. Mr. Jim was that way. He was the best Mr Jim he could be while he was here in our lives. Aunt Shirley was all in, in the lake God put her in for as long as he gave her life.

So wherever your lake is and whatever size fish God has made you to be, just be it really well. I will come back in a week or so and take the green boat out and laugh at the many memories of Jim and Joan Gillespie and be so thankful God put them swimming in my lake so I could be blessed with friendship and a pretty nice green scanoe!