"Gone fishing" is the sign on the door of many an angler this time of year. The long days, the warm breezes, and the hope of a good catch lure expert fishers and weekend casters, alike. And the stories that come home can be real whoppers! The high adventure intensifies with every telling and the fish get longer with every measure of outstretched arms. The fishing is fun, the stories are engaging, and the remembering is almost as good as the doing.
The Bible gives us a whopper of a fish story, too. Only in this tale, the fish does the catching. God gives Jonah a specific assignment. But not wanting to obey God's instruction, Jonah heads the opposite direction... on a boat... and out to sea. A violent storm comes up, and Jonah is blamed. The sailors fear for their lives and throw Jonah overboard. Surely going down to his death, Jonah finds himself in the belly of a whale. Thinking he was walking away from a difficult task to live on easy street, Jonah finds himself in deep water.
