Salmon run

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

Salmons fascinate me. Each August I drive a few miles north of my home in Idaho and watch them make their weary way through the last stages of their spawning run to the sandbars along Lake Creek. I always think of the long journey they’ve taken.

Some months earlier, they leave the Pacific Ocean and begin their run up the Columbia to the Snake River, then up the main fork of the Salmon River to the East Fork, up the Secesh River to Lake Creek – more than 700 miles.

Driven by instinct, they swim against currents, up waterfalls, and around hydroelectric dams. Despite eagles, bears, and many other predators, they struggle to reach their ancestral spawning grounds to lay their eggs.

Their journey reminds me of the human journey. We too have a homing instinct. "There exists in the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, a sense of Deity," John Calvin said. We are born and we live for the express purpose of knowing and loving God. He is the source of our life, and our hearts are restless until they come to Him.

Are you restless today, driven by discontent and a longing for that elusive "something more"? Jesus Christ is the source and satisfaction of all you seek. Come to Him today and find rest for your soul (MATTHEW 11:28). – David H. Roper

Looking to Jesus, my spirit is blest,

The world is in turmoil, in Him I have rest;

The sea of my life around me may roar,

When I look to Jesus, I hear it no more. – Anon.

READ: MATTHEW 11:25-30

Our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Christ.