Buddies
Luke 10:1
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.
While reading this account of seventy or seventy-two disciples being sent out into the neighboring communities, I wondered . . . “why two?” Why 36 groups of 2 and not 24 groups of 3 or 3 groups of 24? Then I thought about my friend Bart.
Bart and I are good friends. We don’t get together as often as we like, but our favorite times together are when we’re fishing. We’re “fishing buddies”. One of my favorite memories of Bart is when we fished the “spawning pool” together. This was a deep pool in the Owens River . . . more than twenty feet deep. With a gravel bottom and long quiet stretches of water, it was the ideal place for large brown trout to hang out and, at the right times of the year, to spawn.
It was best fished from an island in the middle of the river . . . requiring a difficult wade out onto the island. Then, once safely on the island, it was impossible to see the fish in the bottom of the pool to place the fly correctly. This place could only be fished as a team.
When I scrambled onto a rock outcropping overlooking the pool, I could clearly see the large fish . . . many large fish . . . in the bottom of the pool. I could spot for Bart, who was on the island. I could tell him where to cast and how to drift the fly to get it into the right position. I could tell him whether or not his fly was drifting at the right depth. If everything else was right, I could tell him when a fish turned to take his fly, so that he could be ready to strike. Then, after a time, we would switch positions so that I could fish from the island with his help.
We caught many fish that day, but we also learned to depend on and trust in one another. We also celebrated each catch, and commiserated on each failure. At the end of the day, we had great fun sharing our day with the others in the group. Many of them started “team fishing” the next day!
Jesus sent out the 72 as teams. He must have known that they would be better together than separate. He knew that they could “see their targets” better and would be more fruitful in “catching” as a pair. We’re told that they cast out demons and learned many things in the process.
Who is your “fishing buddy”? Do you have someone (other than your spouse) who you share your life with and who you trust in and depend on? Someone who can tell you when you’re “fishing too deep” or when you are fishing with the “wrong fly”? If so, praise God for allowing you to find each other. If not, ask God to send you a “fishing buddy” – to make you a better fisher of men.