July 6 – “Me and Zak”

I was assigned a daunting task yesterday.  Facing the prospect of torrential downpours and gusty winds, I was expected to be the one to accomplish this challenging, adultish undertaking.  All others in the house were already assigned other duties.  Chris was working toward lunch and being the consummate hostess.  Christina and Kel were headed to the library with their brood.  Josh was sweeping up his two youngest to meet them there.  Christi was struggling to fight off a migraine, so we were doing our best to keep her isolated and excess noises to a minimum.  Cailyn had not yet arrived.  That just left Caleb and Zak.  What to do.  Caleb really wanted to stick around the house and be lazy for a while.  None of the other options appealed to him at the time.  And Zak?  Well, Zak received his assigned taskmaster well.  That would be me.  And our job?  Well, we agreed that it would be difficult, but between the two of us, we were fairly certain it could be accomplished.  Me and Zak would … go fishing.  I know.  I know.  But someone was going to have to make the sacrifice.  And I have always been one to relegate my body to such awful struggles without question.  I couldn’t possibly allow anyone else to have to suffer such agonies as we faced.  Me and Zak.  Fishing it was.

Now our excursion was not made under the best of circumstances, weather-wise.  We casted through two different rain events, and barely avoided a third when we made it into the truck after loading up to come home.  Zak was undeterred through it all.  In fact during the first shower he may or may not have been seen with arms outstretched twirling in a circle. 

Our catch wasn’t all that successful in the grand scheme of things.  I caught a sand trout or two.  But Zak was Mr. Exotic once again.  Along with a sand trout of his own and a spec, he also brought in two rat reds (we threw them back, of course).  But his most exciting catches were the two needle-nosed eels.  He was not all that interested in touching them to get them off his hook, though.  Those long snouts filled with sharp-looking teeth just didn’t appeal to him for some reason.  He is truly learning the excitement of salt-water fishing.  You never know what you are going to reel in when you get a strike. 

So I made it through my assignment.  All the cousins were at the house when we returned, so Zak jumped right in amongst them as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  I jumped … into the shower. 

Psalms 76:4 says, “You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game.”

Father, thank you for making the cooling rain and some “different” fish for Zak to experience.  Amen.