Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, Keystone Heights, Florida
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ~ Matthew 4:1 Have you ever asked yourself why He had to endure this? Hebrews 2:18 offers insight, “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” Jesus was God, certainly, but as unbelievable as it may seem, He was also a flesh and blood man, who “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) This temptation to sin was very real, and was just as strong in Him as it is in us. Keep in mind that temptation in and of itself is not sin. It’s yielding to the temptation that becomes sin. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (I Corinthians 10:13) Two more things. Most scholars believe that Satan tempted Jesus during the entire 40-day fast in the desert, but only the final three are recorded for us. And lastly, keep in mind that a test is something given by God in order to improve us. A temptation is given by Satan with the intent of destroying us or our witness for Him. So back to my original ‘why’ question. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one Who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
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How many of us have been caught believing a tale told us by a loved one or friend? I get caught almost every year by my humorous, tale-weaving husband, and this year was no different. In addition, my cousin’s wife nailed me too.
I’ll share Blaine’s. It was fairly early this morning and Blaine had been looking at stuff on his ipad, when he stood and announced incredulously that our next campground – the one we were supposed to move to today – had sent an email and said they were closed! He’s so good at pulling these things off, plus it’s happened in the past (think Covid), so I really had no reason to doubt him. I just wondered where in the world we were going to live for the next six days. You can’t get into a campground in Florida – especially with our size rig – unless you’ve booked a year in advance. But very soon, he alleviated my concern with those time-honored words, “April Fool’s!”. Whew!
Today’s drive was pretty stressful for Blaine with tons of traffic in multiple lanes, construction and wind.
Look at that line of cars to get in! It wasn’t horrible.
We waited in line about 10 minutes.
Why such a long line to get into a State Park in the middle of the day?
There were goings on at the fort. Costumed interpreters to be exact. The first Saturday of every month.
Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach, Florida
By the time we got checked in and set up, he was ready for an early dinner of grilled cheese and a relaxing walk on the beach!
We headed in the direction of the Park’s namesake to see the fort, intending to walk past or around it, whatever was available to us from the outside. We never made it that far.
Just as we walked up to the fort area, three guys got really excited, so we figured the one had a fish on the line and we wanted to see what he’d caught.
Well.
He pulled. He let his line out. He pulled. He let his line out. He walked the beach. He pulled…. We talked about leaving, but instead we sat on the rocks and watched.
His rod bowed. His rod straightened. And on and on it went.
For seventy minutes! And then . . . .
His line snapped! Oh snap!!!! 😊 We felt so badly for him! And his young daughter who’d also been waiting.
Fortunately, we were still rewarded for our attendance when one of the other guys managed to quickly reel in a six or seven foot nurse shark.
All that effort, and they have to clip and remove the hook and send them back out to sea. There was a Park Ranger there to make sure they did, too.
Looked painful for the shark!
Oh.
And that was a live fish they strung on the line to catch him.
We just don’t get fishing. I mean. What’s the point if you can’t even keep it??
We’d been there so long, we thought surely we’d have a nice sunset to watch on the way back, but alas. It wasn’t meant to be. Still. It was pretty nice to just sit around doing nothing! A rare thing for us!
