A Wise Fisherman

Ancient Manuscript: Gospel of Thomas

Saying: 8

My Reflection on Verse:

This is a saying about choices you can make.  You can make wise decisions or you can make foolish decisions.  Even though the saying doesn’t talk about the foolish choices we can infer what the foolish decision would be.  We have to understand that the wise man will make the best decisions and the most important times of all.

Let us understand that when you make foolish decisions you affect your whole life.  We have to understand that the most foolish decision you can make is not to accept Jesus in your life.  We have to see that we have the opportunity over and over again to choose Jesus in your life. 

A wise person will choose salvation over all other things.  They are looking for something in their life to change things.  They look through the multitude of choices that confront them and they choose the one that leads to everlasting life.  The things of the world they skip to be forever connected to the Holy One.

The fish are all the available choices that a person can choose from.  We can decide to take some of the small fish and have a lot of problems.  See the small fish are all the transgressions that we can consume in our life.  We can choose to keep all the little fish and throw back the big fish.  This would be like having that opportunity right in front of you and instead of accepting Jesus you choose to live in sin to the fullest.

The person that chooses the big fish and throws the small fish back is choosing the lifesaving power of Jesus in their life.  Now, we have to understand that the person that didn’t accept Jesus will be given the opportunity to accept Jesus at any point of their life.  Yet, if they continue throwing back the saving power of Jesus they will never receive the big reward in life.

I actually experienced a situation like this the other day.  I went to a small lake and was watching people fish.  There was one man that was catching fish; he was throwing back on the small fish that he caught.  He was only keeping the large fish that would give him more meat to consume.

No more than 25 feet away sit two people fishing.  Every fish that they pulled out of the water they were keeping.  They had actually gotten into a school of small fish.  They were catching many fish and they were taking them all with them.  The time that I was there they never caught a large enough fish to really keep.

When I asked the first man how things were going.  He said it was fun and he had caught one really nice fish.  Yet, he was letting the others go back so that they could grow and become bigger fish.  He was allowing the little fish go back in the water with the thought that the next time that he came maybe he would never catch it again and it would be big enough to take home.

When we asked the second couple about how things were going.  They were really excited about all the fish that they were catching.  Yet, the man said that he came out several times before and hadn’t caught anything.  I wanted to say you aren’t catching fish because you are taking the little ones before they have a chance to mature.  

The choice is yours.  You can throw your net in the world and consume all the small fish and throw back the big one.  You can also decide to throw your net and only keep the large fish.  The first person that keeps all the small fish is allowing the world of sin to be more important than the love of Jesus.  Yet, the person that keeps the big fish and let the small ones go back is accepting to follow Jesus over the things of this world.

Questions:

Have you accepted the love of Jesus?  Are you choosing to live in the world by allowing yourself to fall for temptations without ever accepting Jesus in your life?  What do you need to do today to change your life?