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Topic: Gone Fishing (02/01/07)
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Raising her hand to stop her hair from stinging her sunlit face, Carrie scanned the lake and compared it to her memories.
Willow trees just back from the lake edge contorted in the sudden wind, creaking with their memories. One in particular caught her attention. Its branches would normally dip in the water seemingly testing its temperature for them every summer, now the jaggedly shorn trunk a stark reminder.
Turning from the wind, Carrie walked back and found her favorite lake view perch. Braced against the familiar trunk, she stared where the old willow tree had been and tried to picture the precious face of her older brother, Michael. “It’s been so long, Lord…” A sigh escaped without warning, and her eyes closed as she leaned back against the tree.
Summer had always been an adventure, and Carrie tagged along with Mikey everywhere he went. At 5, it was her stubborn duty to idolize him and just generally get in the way. “Pest!” he yelled anytime his great-big grown-up friends of 12 and 13 were nearby. But even then when she hurried too fast to catch up and tripped over her own gangling feet, his gentle hands were the first to help her upright and dust her off. Then she’d get an affectionate, “You pest,” a hug and that incredible Mikey smile just for her.
August of that last year changed everything. Carrie’s eyes drifted open and she looked again to the lake edge by the missing willow tree. You could still see the traces of the small boat dock which once stood there. Grandpa’s old row boat had always been tied to it and stocked with fishing gear. “Old fashioned stuff!” grinned Mikey. “Stuff that works!” Grandpa tossed back every year.
The morning had dawned picture postcard perfect… the line where sky and water met didn’t exist. It was their first morning that summer, arriving on the heels of a huge storm that had washed everything clean. “You should have seen the light show,” Carrie heard Grandpa telling Dad as she trotted by following her brother, as usual. Mikey’s voice cracked as he shouted, “Gone fishing!” over his shoulder. Dad’s “Watch out for Carrie!” drifted back with the morning breeze.
Mikey was at the end of the dock loading his gear into Grandpa’s boat, and Carrie remembered just reaching the dock and seeing that wonderful “Mikey smile” as he called to her, “C’mon pest…those rainbows won’t wait.” He caught the rainbow trout while she admired their colors and his prowess.
It was the shattering sound that ripped the morning to shreds and glued her feet to the dock. His smile fell off as he saw her frozen in place and the shadow moving across the dock. None of them had known the wind from the storm the day before had finally broken the longest limbs of the willow tree, and now they were coming down.
Wiping tears from her eyes, she struggled back to the present and the tree stump. Carrie never saw the limbs fall. She couldn’t even remember Mikey hurling himself along the length of the dock to get to her before the tree did. She just knew it hadn’t hit her, but him instead. The dock had crumpled under the sudden impact and tree, dock, and Mikey had gone under the water’s surface.
Carrie pushed herself to standing and set her shoulders. God had been whispering to her closed heart for awhile, and the words tumbled in her ears, ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.’ *
“Did you really know this, Lord? Did you really plan for this?” she called out to the now glassy lake. The sparkling sapphires were appearing again as she felt her heart warm, “Mikey went fishing with me, Carrie. Just look what rainbows I caught! You!”
Her fresh falling tears were filled with love rather than sorrow as she walked away from a past finally laid to rest.
*Jeremiah 29:11, NIV
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However, I have to debate the ending.You ask a very deep question..."God, was this your plan for my brother?" You use a wonderful scripture that says..."My plans are to prosper you." Then I'm not sure you answered the question. Did you imply that "yes, it was God's intent to take that young boy's life?"
As Christians, we must not read only half the Bible. We live in a cursed world run by the devil and his demons. Let's put the blame where it belongs...not on God's shoulders. His plans are wonderful...it's "man" that is accountable for how those plans play out in our lives.
God doesn't need to take a boy's life to get another saved. True,He may work things out for good in those types of situations, but He is not the problem. He's not schizophrenic, saying one thing and doing another.
Be careful you don't go for the sentimental ending instead of the Truth according to the Word.
Of course, that is one Christian's point of view. That said...congratulations, you write beautifully.