Original Entry: April 8, 2009
McMinnville, OR
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. Luke 5:6
Simon Pete climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. John 21:11
Growing up as a boy in San Luis Obispo, California has given many fond memories usually revolving around my father and one of three things: Hunting, fishing, or sports. This is a fishing story about the ones that got away one day fishing the upper Lopez Creek.
Lopez Creek feeds the lake as it trickles out of its source deep within Lopez Canyon and flows into the lake miles down stream. The countless creek crossings behind the lake made the trip a memorable experience of splashing, screaming, and watching the water spray over the windshield of whatever rig dad happened to own at the time. When I was a boy the headwaters used to be planted with large rainbow trout and dad loved to drive back for a trout fishing frenzy. This day would be no exception as I watched dad catch fish after fish, including my limit, as I carried the old wicker fishing creel watching it fill fish by fish.
The bag limit was usually a suggestion in dad’s younger days and the trout where literally falling out of that old creel by the end of the day. Before we snuck out of there we would set down our gear, count the fish and go to the bathroom so there would be no pit stops on the hour ride home. When we finally arrived at home dad told me to set the creel so we could count and clean the fish but to my chagrin the creel were nowhere to be found!
Livid (putting it mildly), we loaded up in the car and it seemed like he yelled at me the entire hour back to the last known spot of the lost creel.
We never found it, and dad never let me forget about it.
Matthew 4:18-22 finds Peter, Andrew, James and John on the shores of Galilee. Peter and Andrew were fishing with James and John close by fixing their nets. These sets of brothers not only knew each other but were quite possibly business partners. Going back to Luke 5:6 it is possible that the same nets James and John were mending were the same nets torn with the great catch of fish recorded in Luke 5:1-11. The Luke 5 incident would explain why these four would drop their nets “immediately” to follow Jesus. Ironically the same or similar thing happens in John 21:11 only John is careful to note that the “net was not torn.”
Like the lost creel in Lopez Canyon these followers of Jesus had learned from their mistakes.
Keep your nets strong.
They had strengthened their nets for a normal catch but Jesus is able to do “exceedingly abundantly more than they could hope or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).” These four had learned in their three years with Jesus to trust him for more than they could handle. They had learned to trust him with the souls of men rather than the flesh of fish.
They had learned to strengthen their nets. God calls a man to strengthen his nets. He calls a man to trust Him for a catch bigger than he expects and a life weightier than he could ever imagine.
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into he lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:18-22
