Tags
Christian spirituality, Courage to be honest, Family traditions, Fish, life's upward path, New Year
Showing off the little trout I caught, about age nine, with my parents at Big Sur, California, circa 1959
It’s January 2 and why am I thinking about fish?
Well, taking a walk down memory lane and looking through old photos, I find plenty of snapshots of my family fishing. My mother and sister and I followed Daddy down trout streams in the California coastal hills and in the high Sierras many times. Those are some of my happiest memories: jumping from rock to rock along crystal-clear creeks, collecting colorful pebbles, learning to hold my little pink fishing pole, savoring fresh-caught trout fried over a fire.
Now that my husband and I live in Colorado, we often see fisher men and women along city ponds, thigh-deep in cascading mountain rivers, and casting flies into high-meadow streams and beaver ponds. This winter, as lakes are freezing over, we’ll soon see ice-fishing huts.
Many times in my life I’ve considered the secretive, flashing beauty of fish, heard them slap the water when they jump, watched my dad snag and reel in silvery beauties, gut and clean the keepers, scrape off scales. Not until this year, though, have I looked closely enough to consider the intricacy of a single fish scale and what it has to teach us.
In her book, Unwrapping Wonder: Finding Hope in the Gift of Nature, Carol O’Casey explains:
“What intrigues me about fish scales is … the rings of a fish scale represent years of growth. Similarly, our lives are inscribed with growth rings. God desires to enlarge our lives, our territory, and our character. However, unlike fish, our greatest growth occurs during the darkest times. Can we depend on ourselves during this time? Forget about it. It is precisely in rough waters, and when our resources are exhausted, that we cannot depend on ourselves. Growth occurs on the rim of risk. You risk failure, disappointment, loss. You gain growth. Occasionally, God has to nudge (okay, shove is more like it) us out of our comfort zones to enlarge our rings.”
As this new year begins, I’m asking myself: How has the Lord been nudging me out of my comfort zone in the past year? What growth rings will I, as a result, carry with me into the coming year and beyond? Will I continue to cooperate with Him in developing my “scales” as both a protective covering and a display of beauty created by His presence and grace in my life?
~ Catherine Lawton
Journeys To Mother Love 
What a beautiful analogy to the fish scales. I’m constantly being awed by how God is stretching me with new connections in Spain. And by the way, I have vivid memories of skipping over stones along the river bed while camping and fishing in my youth as well. Wonderful childhood memories. Thanks for sharing this lovely post.
Thank you, Cathy! Food for deep thought. For me, relationships remain both the brightest and darkest areas of life; bringing joy and pain, often in equal measure. Connecting this to moving out of comfort zones and enlarging growth rings gives it meaning to life and peace to the heart.
McGill, you describe very well the complexity of relationships. It seems God places us in human relationships such as marriage, parenthood, and friendships to smooth our rough places and help us mature as well as to give us the comfort of belonging and the joy of journeying together. “Iron sharpens iron.” … I’m so thankful there is “meaning to life” and peace for our hearts, as you say. Thanks for taking time to read and comment here.