CASTING

This morning the verse from my devotional Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon was:

"Casting all your care upon Him,
for He cares for you."
1 Peter 5:7

It made me think of a time when Ethan was in the hospital.

A young man came to the hospital and would stand outside of Ethan's room and pray for him and, I'm sure, for all of us. He didn't know us and came because Ethan had been put on the prayer list at his church by one of our friends. The young man never knocked to come into Ethan's room. He never asked to meet us. I don't think he was really interested in us knowing he was there. He just came to be close and to pray. I believe the only way I knew he was even there was that one of the nurses asked him who he was, and he told them. They consequently came into the room and told us we had a visitor.

His name was Jonathan.

The first verse Jonathan shared with me was the one above. He also said that the picture of the word casting is one of a fisherman casting his net into the water over and over again. He said Peter was telling us that casting our cares is not a one time thing. It is something we must do over and over and over again. A continual casting. Just like the fisherman casting his net.

I know about cast nets.

I grew up on a river and a bay.

My dad had a cast net. He even made one. He met an old man that made cast nets and he taught daddy how to knit his own. He use to sit on our back porch and work on it. He would weave it with a needle that he whittled out of wood. And he would sit patiently, tying knot after knot. Then, when he got it to the size he wanted it to be, he added weights around the bottom of it.

I use to watch him throw that net over and over again. I wondered sometimes how he didn't throw himself into the water with it. But he never did. Or, at least I never saw it happen!

I frequently see men casting their nets off the pier that is in the picture at the top of this blog. I'll watch them walk out to the pier with their net in one hand and a bucket in the other. They bring a bucket because they have the expectation of catching something. They know if they throw the net enough, chances are they'll pull something up. So, they stay for hours. Doing the same thing over and over again.

How silly it would be for a fisherman to go to the trouble of getting his net, going to the water and throwing his net in one time and then quitting if he didn't catch anything in it the first time.

I can see the connection. I think I get the point Peter, a fisherman, was trying to make. To cast our cares one time, might not make a difference. To cast it two times or three times, might not make our burden any lighter. We might not receive the comfort we're looking for. But, if we continue casting those cares... If we continue to pray... If we continue waiting and hoping... If we continue with God. We will know. We will know His care. We will know it and see it as clearly as the fisherman sees the fish he pulls up from the water in his net.

This morning as I was thinking about those words in 1 Peter and the words Jonathan spoke to me outside of Ethan's hospital room, I thought about the words to my grandma's favorite song.

I can hear her alto voice singing it now. I can hear her singing it in complete abandonment before Jesus Himself.

"What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer."

Oh, what I have forfeited.

Way too many times, I haven't brought a bucket with me when I've casted my cares. I haven't had the hope and the expectation from God that He deserves. I think I've been lazy in my casting. Throwing it out there once, not seeing anything and loading up my net and going home. Going back to carrying my own burdens and cares.

So, thanks Grandma. Thanks Peter. Thanks Jonathan.

Thanks for reminding me that casting is a continuous effort, and that it will be rewarded with a great catch. A catch of peace and rest. And, of comfort.

And, most of all...THANK YOU JESUS.

THANK YOU THAT YOU TELL ME TO CAST. AND TO KEEP CASTING.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CARE!

picture above from www.sermonsfrom seattle.com