BLOOD

By:  Mike White

March 3, 2021

I got to go to Dauphin Island a few years back. It wasn't a fishing trip but I was able to turn it into one. When I am near water and cant fish, I like to visit the boat ramps in the area and admire the fish brought in by other anglers.  I was doing just this on our visit to Dauphin Island when I struck up a conversation with a guy about the King Fish (King Mackerel) he had caught that day.

Maybe he felt sorry for me but I like to think he was just a nice guy, a true fisherman, who recognized the pain I was in being land locked on an island with no way to fish for the big boys.  Whatever the reason, he invited me to go out with him and his friend the next day.

The next morning at daylight, we were puttering away from the island when we saw a school of fish breaking the surface. My new buddy ask me if I wanted to have some fun before we started fishing for Kings. Never one to turn down a good time, I replied, "heck yeah!".

As we idled over near the school of fish, we tied some small lures onto a couple of rods. When we were in range, we made our first cast and immediately all three of us hooked up. My bait was hammered and almost immediately whatever was on the end of my line launched itself into the air.  The battle was on! I was in awe watching not just my fish, but the fish the other guys had on their lines, as the fish leaped up, thrashed and spun like nothing I had seen before.

As I swung my first fish into the boat, one of the guys ask, "Is that your first Lady Fish?" and then he laughed. It was one of those evil laughs of "this is going to be funny". A few seconds later, I knew why he laughed.  I had blood (and poop) all over me. Both of them were laughing now. By the time we decided we had all the fun with the Lady Fish we could stand, the boat (and us) looked like a murder scene (with a lot of poop mixed in) from a bad movie.

I now know, this is what Lady Fish are known for, they fight hard and are a very acrobatic fish when reeling them and once onboard, they bleed like a stuck pig and poop like a 4-H heifer in your boat. About all they are good for is their fight and becoming bait for a larger fish.  They excel at both!

The Lady Fish we caught were not wasted. We hooked them up and trolled them in deeper water and caught some excellent fish that day.  Certainly a day to remember!

That evening as we rode back to the boat ramp, I was looking at all the blood on the boat.  I'm telling you, it was unreal. As we continued on and the boat rode the swells, it seemed to lull me into some pretty deep thoughts about blood.

I thought about how precious and powerful blood is, not just for the fish that had bleed out on the boat, but for us. Powerful, in that it is life.  Without blood we can't live.  Precious in that we have so little blood in our bodies.  If you have ever had a bad cut, especially on your head, you might think gallons and gallons of blood is gushing out of you, but actually the human body only contains about10.5 pints of blood. You may only have to lose as little as a pint and a half before you feel the effects of blood loss and only 3.5 to 4 pints to die.

I then began to ponder about the blood that Jesus shed to pay for our sins. I thought about Jesus and why it required his life and his blood to cleanse us and give us the chance to live forever.  You see, prior to Jesus being crucified and dying on the cross, the punishment for a man who sinned (that wasn't punished by death) was the sacrifice of an animal. Blood had to be shed in atonement for a man's sin.  However, once Jesus shed his blood, sacrifices were no longer need, Jesus "paid" for man's sins from that time forward.

Then, as I often do, I then went down a rabbit hole. I will summarize here.  I knew that Jesus' blood saved us from our sins but did it prevent us from sinning?  I think in some ways it does.  I think that knowing and understanding the sacrifice Jesus made when He gave his life probably motivates us to not sin, that as Christians, we should be convicted about sin in our lives and not want to sin. So, I finally thought, yes, indirectly, the blood of Christ can "protect" us from sinning. This is just my opinion and I am still sure it's right, I certainly can't back it up biblically

The only thing I am 100% sure of is that Jesus Christ sacrificed his life and allowed his blood to be shed in atonement for my sins and your sins so that one day we might join him in Heaven and live forever.

My prayer as I have been writing this is that my words might have stirred something in you. And that you will say a simple prayer that you repent of his sins, proclaim belief that Jesus died and rose on the third day and then ask Him into your heart as your Lord and Savior.  

‍

Your Brother in Christ,

‍

Bubba White

‍