July 5: Christ as Fish, Abundance of Grace, Go Fish

I am coming around to fish as spirit.  The Greek acronym for some of the names of Christ yields ichthys.  Christ as fish, and fish as Christ.  The more I glimpse the fish in Tinker Creek, the more satisfying the coincidence becomes, the richer the symbol, not only for Christ but for the spirit as well.  The people must live.  Imagine for a Mediterranean people how much easier it is to haul up free, fed fish in nets than to pasture hungry herds on those bony bills and feed them through a winter.  To say that holiness is a fish is a statement of the abundance of grace; it is the equivalent of affirming in a purely materialistic culture that money does indeed grow on trees.  "Not as the world gives do I give to you"; these fish are spirit food.  And revelation is a study in stalking:  "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find."

This is one of my favorite passages in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek--Dillard discussing the abundance of grace.  Christ as fish.  How many times does Christ tell his apostles to cast their nets overboard?  And each time, the disciples haul up so many fish that it almost sinks their boats.  That's God's overwhelming abundance of grace.

It has been a long day.  I was up late last night at the fireworks.  Got to bed after midnight and rose at 4:45 a.m.  I am exhausted.  I need to write my posts, and then I need to do some grading for my online class.  (Of course, I'm having difficulty with the university's system.  It's not giving me access.)  And it's 84 degrees out, and I don't want to do anything but sit in my backyard and read a good book.

Despite my tiredness and technological frustration, I have an abundance of grace in my life tonight.  Fish all around me, so to speak.  I'm working at a job now with some of my best friends.  I don't want to ship my daughter off to a Filipino sweatshop tonight.  My son wants to go out for ice cream tonight.  And there's more fireworks this weekend.  Cast my net on the right side of the ship, and I shall find.

Fish, fish.  Saint Marty got his wish.

My reality--I need about ten liters of Diet Mountain Dew