My mother told me that my grandma would read Casting Across now and then. She wasn’t a fly fisher. She just liked reading about what her grandson was doing.

She passed away last week at the age of 89.

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Some of my earliest memories involve my grandma and grandpa. They were remarkable people. They also lived on a farm. Combines, corn fields, and cattle make quite the impact on a little boy. And as a little boy I spent a lot of time with grandma and grandpa on the farm.

Bottle feeding lambs. Counting puppies as they are born. Climbing into the hayloft to see baby doves. Hearing coyotes yap in the distance. Finding raccoon tracks. Dodging ornery bulls.  Creeping around the barn to catch a glimpse of owls. Naming dozens of cats. Flushing pheasants.

There was not a fish anywhere to be found on those hundreds of acres in central Illinois. But I was surrounded by creation. It was creation harnessed. There were pens, fences, silos, and hybrid crops. But it was creation loved. It was dominion exercised through stewardship. Soil was to be used  but cared for. Animals might end up at the butcher, but they required care and a gentle touch right up until that day. Farming required sustaining. Sustaining required love.

Their love of creation had  a significant impact on me.

Existence was dependent upon corn and soybean yields. Still, people came first. Hundreds of animals needed to be tended to on a daily basis. Still, people came first. Plants and animals mattered, but they were just plants and animals. The immediate value of plants and animals is significant. Their eternal value is virtually zero.

What mattered mattered. Everything mattered; but it mattered as it was supposed to.

 

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My grandpa passed away seven years ago. Last week, my grandma joined him in heaven.

I was honored to be able to speak at both of their funerals. I spoke about what mattered. People, saved by grace through faith. People, who loved their family and their community. People, who were called to live their lives on a farm in rural Illinois. None of that can be separated. It should be prioritized, but it is all inseparably linked by providence.

There is also a providentially ordained line that runs between my earliest years on the farm and my life today. How do I think about the natural world around me? How do I communicate that to my children? What role should fish and fishing and conservation play in my overall purpose?

I know that I should think everything matters, but that it  ought to matter as it is supposed to.

What a blessing it is to know and love people who matter.

 

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All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell,
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

-Cecil Frances Alexander