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Topic: Fishing (06/07/04)
TITLE: I want to help, daddy By Annette Agnello 06/11/04 |
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My dad loved to fish. He would go fishing every chance he got. And at one time or another took all of his kids and later grandkids to go with him. He tried to start us all out young. In my case, that was around the age of five.
The way I remember it we went down an impossibly steep hill to where he had an old wooden boat he had built chained to a tree. I tried to find that hill a few years ago but there is nothing that steep along where it had to have been. Besides he could never have carried the motor and all the gear back and forth to the car if it had been the way I remember.
I think it was my second trip when we ran out of worms. Dad said that was no problem so we pulled into shore and he climbed out of the boat with a little spade. He went a few feet away to dig and keep an eye on his baby girl at the same time. He told me to stay in the boat. I wanted to help but he wanted me safe and the boat was the best place for that.
After a few minutes I saw a perfect worm just slithering down toward the water. This was different than the other worms, they were a plan brown like the mud they were dug from, but this one was colorful in a way. There was a very tiny pattern running the length of its skin. I just knew daddy would like this special worm it was clearly better than the plain ones he was finding. It was coming very close to the boat so I thought I could get daddy at least one worm, and still obey him and stay in the boat. So I gleefully yelled, “Daddy here’s a worm,” as I was reaching to pick up my find.
Dad yelled for me not to touch it, and stay in the boat. I was disappointed; I had only wanted to help. He was scared, because he knew at a glance that my pretty little worm was a baby rattlesnake. Small as he was his poison was just as deadly as a full-grown snake’s would have been. Dad had wanted me in the boat because he knew the shore held dangers I didn’t know about or understand.
Our heavenly Father is like that, sometimes he tells us to do or not do things that seem quite innocent to us. He knows about the snakes waiting on the shore. He’s trying to keep us out of trouble and he doesn’t need us to help him dig worms.