Slippery Fingers

               My trip to northern Georgia included a much-anticipated fly-fishing expedition.  Not having much experience and lacking some of the basic equipment, I still hoped to be successful.  I waded into the Toccoa River in tennis shoes and shorts carrying my fly rod.  I started casting as I waded down the river.  I spent an hour casting and walking down the river with no luck at all.  Just as I was beginning to lose hope in my expertise, I got a strike.  A medium sized rainbow trout had hit my fly.  I reeled it in and grabbed it in my hands, having forgotten to bring a net.  Just as I was beginning to celebrate, the trout jumped and slipped through my fingers and cheerfully returned to the river.  Stupidity and slippery fingers ruined my catch that day.

            Our Savior has called us to Himself, and we belong to Him.  He catches us and removes us from a life of sin.  He tells us in John 10:28,29: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand”.  These verses are so encouraging to the child of God.  They tell us that when we receive Christ as our Savior, we have eternal life, and we will never perish. Jesus describes our security as an eternal guarantee.  We are said to be in His hand.  We also are in the Father’s hand.  Jesus said no one can snatch us out of His hand.  Our salvation is so secure that nothing can separate us from Him: not trials, not sickness, not Satan, not sin, and not even our own slipperiness.

            After that first failure at fly-fishing, I bought a net.  I was not going to try holding on to a slippery trout again with my bare hands.  I am so glad that Jesus doesn’t have slippery fingers.  He gives us eternal life and we will never perish.