Spring fever is springing around here and that means it is time to go fishing! Our son has not been able to think about much else but catching catfish! So with that, it means it’s time for something new to be done!
Setting lines and poles for catfishing means a lot of work. Cane poles were cut and lines had to be made. All of the materials needed can be expensive. Lead weights are one of those things that are necessary but costly. So instead of buying them, our son pulled out husband’s tools and began to make his own lead weights.
The process is simple, really. Lead is melted and poured into a mold to make an item. What isn’t simple is the bigger picture. The lead that is melted down is really nothing more than trash. Tire/rim weights that have long been discarded and thrown away by others were collected over time. They sit in a bucket in the barn until the time is right.
When he decided to make the weights, those “useless” pieces of lead were placed in the melting pot and heated until they became liquid. The liquid is then poured into the mold and after cooling, the “new” weights are ready! They have totally become something new.
Days later, the weights are tied onto lines and those lines are carefully placed along the river bank. Baited and placed, the wait is on! Will there be fish on the line?
I had the opportunity to be a part of this process from start to finish. Although I have watched and participated for years, this time was different. As I rode with the kids to set the lines, bait them and witness the catch, I was able to see God and all He is doing.
An old song has been playing in my head for weeks and it played harder while we fished.
“Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife. But He made something beautiful of my life.”
All our son had to work with was some old thrown away pieces of lead and some tools that hardly anyone would know how to use, much less even what they were. But in the hands of someone with knowledge and experience, those pieces of trash were turned into something good, something beautiful.
Ecclesiastes 3 is full of reminders that there is a specific time for everything. But in verse 11 He says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” When the time is right, that which seems incomplete or even bad, will be made into something good or even beautiful.
Maybe you don’t feel quite “good” today. You may even feel like you’ve been tossed in a bucket in the corner of the barn. Let me remind you of what God has promised for you and your life! He has said there is a time for you! Your time is coming! He is about to make you new and into something beautiful with passion and purpose! Jeremiah 18
He is about to take you and melt you and pour you into a new mold and make you into something good! Your day is coming! Get ready!
Yes, that process can be painful. The heat will be turned up! But in the end, that seemingly simple process gives a result that is fascinating and is a part of a much bigger picture!
Saturday night, just a few short minutes after baiting the lines, guess what we caught? On our way back to the launch, we already had 4 catfish on those lines! You should have seen the excitement!
You know what’s even more exciting? Knowing our purpose! The purpose of those weights are not to sit on a shelf, not to sit in a tacklebox and ride in a boat. The purpose of those weights is to catch fish. Without those weights the lines don’t hang in the correct spot and are less likely to catch fish.
But when we are used by God, when we are in the right place at the right time, we become fishers of men! We become what is necessary and needed, what is ordained and placed with purpose. And when we are used, fish are caught, the kingdom is expanded and His will is accomplished.
Lord, may we be molded and used. Make us and place us. Father, may we “CATCH” the fish that need to be caught, big and small. Use us to be fishers of men!
Heather
What beautiful treasures, ordinary things can become , if we place all our trust in Him!
And when we share them with others, our “nets” will truly overflow
Thank you for sharing with us!
Yes! Oh to have overflowing nets !!!