by Barbara Dobbelaire

Created on: August 11, 2008

Cleaning Fish
A Parable

And He said to them, Come after Me [as disciples-letting Me be your Guide], follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men! Matthew 4:19 AMP

My pastor and I had made plans to go fishing together. I had recently taken a new job working with the Developmentally Disabled. I needed to know how to fish as a lot of the guys I worked with wanted to go fishing as one of their outings. My husband couldn't teach me as he had never been fishing either.

My pastor is from Canada and he is always talking about fishing and hunting. Who better to teach me. So my husband and I made plans with our pastor for him to teach us. We had planned for months in advance to be able to have the time to do this. I had looked forward to this day with great anticipation. I had never been fishing before and it gave me the added bonus of spending time with my husband and my pastor.

The day arrived. It was a perfect day, all that I could have hoped for. The sun was shining, the breeze was perfect, it was just enough. I found myself singing under my breath as I worked. I was so looking forward to when I would be able to leave for the day. Finally the time arrived and I signed out and headed to my car. I met my husband and we were off to where we had already agreed to meet our pastor.

We met and I was so excited to have this time on this beautiful day just to spend outdoors and be able go fishing. Pastor got out the bait and affixed it to his hook. I watched as he cast out his line hoping to be able to mimic his actions. Shortly thereafter he had a tug on his line. I watched as he slowly reeled the fish in . He truly was a gifted fisherman. I waited with great anticipation to see the size of the fish. He took the hook gently from the mouth and held it up for us to admire. It was a beauty and good sized too. My mouth watered in anticipation of the grilled fish we would eat later that day.

In horror, I watched as he angrily tossed it back into the water. When I questioned his actions, he replied, "it was not cleaned. I only want the ones that are cleaned." I shook my head as I wondered how he could be so stupid! I thought he was supposed to be a great fisherman and even I know that you catch them, and then you clean them.

How often do people put off coming to God, waiting to clean themselves up first?
So often we think that we are to do the work of cleaning ourselves up and then we can hope to approach God and ask Him to save us. We hope to get good enough! I wonder what we think that

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