A Lobster Story

Lobstering with my family in the Florida Keys was more like a job than a typical vacation. Essentially, you are dragged behind a boat, holding onto a sled, searching for lobster holes. It's challenging because often you have to dive 12-20 feet to catch them.

When I was 10 or 11 years old, it was finally my turn to try and catch my first lobster. Being a strong swimmer and taller for my age, I felt ready. That day, my cousin who was three years older than me went out and caught his first lobster, and in our family, there was a tradition: You had to catch your first lobster barehanded. It wasn't too bad.

Lobsters walk slowly, but when startled, they use their tails to swim backward rapidly to escape and you had a net and a tickle stick, as it is called. The goal was to scare the lobster into the net. The idea is to position the net behind them and scare them into it using the tickle stick. When done correctly they zoom into the net. All of this had to be done on a single breath of air, 15 feet underwater, with the ocean rocking, so gloves helped grip everything and pull the lobster out of the net when bringing them back to the boat. When you caught your first lobster, you would be presented with gloves, which meant you were now part of the crew, a real adult, and part of the family.

On my first time out in the water with my dad, we stumbled upon a perfect hole with several lobsters. My dad started diving down and catching them, and I followed suit. I dove down but had to resurface for air. I tried setting up the net again, but the lobster swam away. My attempts churned up sand on the ocean floor, making it hard to see, and I became frustrated.

Recognizing my growing frustration and potential embarrassment, my dad took the net from my hand. He swam to the ocean floor, caught a single lobster, and spun the net around tangling the lobster up. Then, he let the net go. He pointed at me and pointed at the net and I understood what I was supposed to do. It was simple–I just had to swim to the bottom, grab it, and bring it in. So, I did. I grabbed the lobster and brought it in. We finished with that hole, returned to the boat, and I received my gloves. But, I felt like a fake, I WAS a fake. But, everyone was proud of me, and my dad gave me a wink.

Moments later, I was back in the water, heading to the next hole, wearing my gloves. And what was amazing was, I was suddenly able to do it. I could catch lobsters and I was able to pull them in left and right. I didn't deserve those gloves or the praise. Yet, once I was given my new identity of "lobster catcher," suddenly I could catch lobster. And that's precisely how God works, he moves first and grants you a new identity.

In baptism, he claims us as his own and we get our gloves, even before we could have ever deserved them.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)