Photo by Paul Venturo
He hasn’t eaten for a while now and he’s hungry. He is lurking around in the rocks, deep down in the water, looking for prey. Suddenly, a flash off to his side catches his notice. A shiner is struggling through the water—a perfect target. One powerful thrust of his tail and the shiner is in his mouth, down his throat . . . Wait a minute. Something is different about this shiner. He feels a sharp pang in his mouth—something is pulling him towards shore. He struggles and wriggles frantically—but to no avail. He is dragged onto shore into blinding sunlight, a measuring tape is stretched over him, a hook ripped out of his toothy jaw . . .
While we were near Lake Oahe, South Dakota, I caught a large Northern Pike. It was 28 inches long, and we estimated it to be about 7 pounds. We took it up to our site and grilled it. We all tried a couple of pieces and agreed it was pretty good.
The Northern Pike is a large fish native to the northern United States and Europe. It lives in small to large lakes and rivers. Pike hide themselves in weeds and strike out at any fish that pass by. The devil wants to snatch us away from Jesus, but if we are trusting Jesus with all our hearts, he cannot do that. John 10:28b: “‘no one will snatch them out of My hand.’”
Photos by Jenny Venturo
On the grill
Apprehension
Pretty good!
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Information from: Gilbert, Carter R., and James D. Williams. National Audubon Society Field Guide to Fishes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.