God's Knocking at Your Door

There are very few places on Earth that make me feel more connected to God than a lake.  Some day, some way, some how ... I'd like to purchase a lakefront home and move there with my wife and kids. I love being close to nature, and I love the tranquility.

Of course, it's not all about me ... not even at the lake.  God gave me a sharp reminder of that a while back.  I was fishing with my kids one day.  Two little girls that were maybe a year or so older than my daughter came running up like a whirlwind.

These girls had poles but no extra tackle.  After getting snagged, they were missing weights, hooks, etc.  There was a mother and an aunt that eventually showed up.  They had poles of their own, but this was their first rodeo.  The  mother caught a fish and didn't know how to take it off of her hook!

That was just the tip of the iceberg.  I ended up rigging these little girls' poles for them again and again.  When they lost hooks and weights, I replaced them with my own.

After 40 minutes of this, my patience was wearing thin.  This whole thing was cutting in on my quality time with my own kids.  I wasn't getting much of my own fishing done either.

I was literally a second away from asking these girls to head back towards their mother when one of them looked at me with her big brown eyes and asked a question.  "Are you their daddy?"  She was pointing to my kids.  I replied that I was.  "We don't have a daddy," she said.

I instantly felt the conviction of The Lord.  In that moment I would have given them my whole tackle box and my pole.  Of course, I continued to help those girls.  I did it with a grateful heart.  I even shared some of our bait with them.  My daughter ended up having a blast with them.  The girls and their mother thanked me for my kindness before they left.

Lots of realizations came with this experience, especially as I thought about it afterward.  The Lord let me know that there would be no random encounters at the lake.  If He put someone in my path out there, it was for a reason and a purpose.  He intended to provide that person with something they needed, and I was the chosen instrument.  Those girls needed a positive interaction with a male role model, and I came incredibly close to failing the test.

Since then, I've gone out of my way to be helpful and kind to people.  The Lord has also gone out of His way to put plenty of people in my path at the lake.  What better place to show people God's love than His own lake?