Fish Kissing

Last Month a group from Creekside traveled to Ilwaco for a day of sturgeon fishing. It was a blast. I took Jason Deuman, our youth pastor with us for his first fishing trip with me. Jason did great, catching a 45 inch, 15 lb sturgeon. I didn't do too bad either, catching a 50 1/2 inch, 25 lb fish. I was so excited I posed like I was kissing it.

Now sturgeon are an ugly fish, with a sucker type mouth, but it reminded me of a story from my childhood. You know the one about the princess that kissed a frog and it became a handsome prince.

I have often wondered what went through her mind just before she kissed the frog. What if the talking frog was just playing a trick on her and he wanted to get a kiss from a pretty girl. What if nothing happened except a laughing frog and a girl with a slimy mouth?

Of course, the moral of the story is that there is a wonderful prince inside the frog just waiting to be released, if the princess believes enough to take a chance and kiss the frog.

I think that moral is a lot like Creekside Church, not that we are a frog . . . or a sturgeon. But the frog would have stayed a frog if the princess didn't believe a prince was inside and her faith helped fulfill his destiny. We needed someone who believed in us and our future too.

And someone does believe in us, Creekside, and his name is Jesus. Last week I shared with you the scripture from Matthew 12 about Jesus healing the bruised reed and rekindling the smoking flax into a flame. That is just what is happening to us. Our bruises are healing. The smoke is being replaced with fire. There is a king, just like in the story, who is willing to believe that our destiny is about to be fulfilled.

So everytime you see something ugly, like a frog or a sturgeon, just remember that change is not only possible, it is predictable when Jesus gets involved. He changes us from the inside out, heart first.