Mend! Mend! Mend! I don’t know how many times I have heard those words from the fabulous river guides I have had on float trips. They weren’t being critical, they were helping me, pointing out that my flies were not floating properly. Either they were dragging in the current or my fly line was getting slack or a belly in it contributing to the drag or would cause me to not execute a good hook set when fish did strike. Sometimes they anticipated a current change and would have me mend so my fly would enter that section properly. Mend!
A good mend will throw fly line up or down stream (depending the current situation) without much, if any, disturbance of your fly so that the fly can drift drag free, looking natural and enticing, extending the drift. One drift may require several mends to keep the fly drag free. Good anglers will practice mending as it is one key to catching more fish.
If you think about it, mending is like grace. If mending is like a reset for the flies allowing them to do what they were intended to do, then you can think of God’s grace as a mend in life. God’s intentions are that you would journey through life drag free. God’s intentions are that you learn to live a life of loving Him and others (Mark 12:28-31) and taking on the life and character of Jesus (Colossians 3:1-17; Galatians 5:13-25). There will be times when you simply do not live within God’s intentions. Your life can become a poor drift. All of us have experienced what the Bible calls sin. Romans 3:23-25 says:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.
But here is the amazing thing about grace. God’s mercies are made new every day. God is faithful to forgive when we confess and repent (move toward God and away from poor drifts). We know we do not deserve it, but God continues to throw mends in our lives over and over again because his great joy is that we would travel drag free all the days of our lives for his glory. Now that is amazing – mending grace!
As we journey toward the cross of Good Friday and experience the power of resurrection on Sunday, do not miss the love and grace of God that he has thrown into your life. He has given you the ultimate mend through his son so that you can have life now and for eternity. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16).
Mend! Mend! Mend!
For Reflection:
- Read and reflect on the Bible verses listed throughout this post. What is God impressing upon your heart after reading them?
- Have you received the love and grace of God through faith in your life?
- Where is your life needing a mend? Will you allow God to throw a mend in your life?
- Take time this week to confess what needs to be confessed. Know and trust that God has forgiven you through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Offer a prayer thanking God for his mends of grace he has and keeps throwing in your life.
- The next time you fish and throw a mend, may it remind you of God’s grace at work in your life.
Eric Camfield | April 2022
