By Dan Wilson

Hope Lutheran

A sturgeon is one ugly fish. It’s a prehistoric monster that looks the part. I wonder what God had in mind when that fish was created? The fish’s head is rock hard and though the fish has no bones, it sure has tough cartilage. Its mouth is like a suckerfish, located on the bottom of the fish to vacuum the river floor. It has catfish-like whiskers. Sturgeon, at least those that aren’t caught, can live for more than 100 years.

In the creation story in Genesis, on the fifth day, when God created all the great sea monsters (God must have been admiring a sturgeon about that time) and every living creature that moves, God said it was good and blessed them. If God can bless a critter that only a momma sturgeon could love, well, how much more would God bless his own children, created in God’s own image of love?

Last month I had a chance to go sturgeon fishing twice. What is interesting about sturgeon fishing is that the fish must be between 41 and 54 inches to be a “keeper.” Any smaller than 41 inches, any larger than 54 inches, and well, back in the river it goes. Ask me how it feels to catch one 40 and one-half inches long. Well, at least I got to hold it up for a picture before throwing it back into the river.

Keepers are hard to come by. We caught a lot of sturgeon and a lot of sturgeon went back into the water because they weren’t keepers.

Sometimes, when we get hooked by the trials of life, we might wonder if God thinks we’re keepers. When illness or personal loss, or tragedy, or lost jobs, or any of so many of life’s trials grab hold of us, we often wonder where God is in all of this chaos.

Often we begin to doubt ourselves, think we don’t measure up to God’s expectations and begin to think that God isn’t going to keep us in his love; that we’re going to be thrown back into the chaotic waters of life. If we’ll ever be a keeper.

But we’re not sturgeon and no matter how big or small, no matter how good or bad, no matter what we think, God thinks we are all keepers. God isn’t going to throw us back or abandon us. God’s greatest desire is to be one in you and you one in God. And in God there is no such thing as one who doesn’t measure up. That’s what grace is all about.

God loves you so much that God was willing to give himself up, to take the risk of incarnation to walk among us in Jesus Christ. To see and experience the good and bad of life and know the truth of human suffering, human joy, human fears and human doubts.

Human beings can be pretty judgmental. And Jesus was judged at the time to not be a keeper. He did things differently, with care and love for his neighbor, even when his neighbor wasn’t very pretty in the eyes of the in-crowd. He didn’t swallow the in-crowd’s line, hook and sinker. He spoke different words. Words like love and grace, not words like hatred and judgment. But society deemed him not a keeper and threw him back. Nailed him to a cross and buried him.

That must have been a painful experience for God, a radical experience that changed the world forever. And through that experience, I think one thing became perfectly clear to God. God’s children are all keepers. And nothing, not being too small or too big, not sin, not our broken humanity, not anything will ever stop God from keeping you in his love. Through God’s amazing grace and love for you, you will always be a keeper in God’s heart.

Have a comment or fishing story to share? You can reach me at pastordan@skynetbb.com.