I Will Call, and Fish Will Answer

I want to remember a moment of wonder from the past week, an incident which if it appeared in a movie, viewers would say, "That would never happen in real life."  Yet it did.

One of the advantages of walking very early in the morning, before the sun is up, is that I can sing if I feel like it.  One of the other advantages is that I get to the small lake near my house in time to see the beautiful colors of sunrise.  Sometimes, the two happen at the same time.

A few days ago, I had the song "I Will Call Upon the Lord" in my head, and I sang it a bit.  At the bank of the lake, I sang the first line, "I will call upon the Lord."

And then, a group of small fish jumped out of the lake, in a perfect circle, as if they were doing a performance for a synchronized swimming contest.  I thought about the fact that they were fish, an important symbol in the Christian faith.  I thought that I was at the side of the lake just before sunrise, when the light sent color not only across the sky, but also across the water.  I thought about the water, another supreme symbol in the Christian faith.

I thought about putting it all in a poem, but no one would believe it, or people would find it trite and overdone.

But experiencing it in the moment, in real life, was a form of living poetry, and in many ways a sacrament:  a tangible symbol of God's grace and presence in the world.