Being a Part of First Things
“First things” in life have a unique significance. Those of us who are parents might remember that first step each of our children took, or perhaps that first tooth, or their first word. Remember their first birthday? Their first Christmas? Shortly thereafter was that first day in school. Yes, there are many precious “firsts” in life.
Sometimes we miss some of those “first things” and feel a twinge of remorse due to the loss. I recently attended a retreat when a young mother got a call from home – half excited and half sorrowful she blurted out – “My little girl just took her first step… and I missed it.”
Last week, I had the privilege of taking a little vacation with some of the family. There was a 23 acre lake with lots of fish just waiting to be caught. Zachary and Micah were just chomping at the bit to get out there and catch a fish. They had been fishing a time or two before, but never caught a fish. I told them I would take them out and we would do our best to change all that.
The first day, Zachary and I went out. I gave some instruction about how to cast the bait, how to wait for the fish to get the whole bait in his mouth and then set the hook. He got several bites but for one reason or another, lost the fish. I told him, we’ll go out tomorrow and try again. The next day, he was ready! This time he made one of his first casts and hooked a bass. He fought that little fish, flipped it into the boat and as that fish laid there flopping back and forth in the bottom of the boat; Zach gawked in amazement, repeating over and over again… “I just caught my first fish!”
News traveled fast and Micah was eager to do the same. We took Micah out and he was not quite as adept at casting the bait. There was plenty of instruction from his other siblings and frustration ran a little high. Then I told Micah, tomorrow Pappy is going to take you out alone, and I’ll teach you how to fish. He said, “Ok Pappy, I’ll remind you”… he kept his end of the bargain.
The next day we went out, once again a little private instruction, only this time he cast both the bait and the fishing pole into the lake. Despair was setting in, but we went to town, found a brand new Zebco 202, rigged it up and within an hour we were back on the lake. It wasn’t 5 minutes and Micah caught his first fish; “Pappy, I just caught a fish… I can’t believe I just caught a fish!” What a joy to be a part of “first things!”