On the matter of fish heads

“Where is it, Dad? What did you do with it?”

“Do with what, son?”
“The fish’s head?”
“I threw it away after I cleaned the rest of the fish.”
“But we want to see it,” cried two more of my children now gathering around me and pulling at my legs.

Earlier that morning, I had headed out to one of the local lakes with my dad, the first time my father and I had been fishing together in nearly 20 years. Living on opposite coasts, and then opposite sides of the world for a time, just made it plain difficult and nearly impossible to fish together.
But this morning, while my dad caught a quantity of fish but no keepers, I had been blessed with a beautiful crappie that weighed between 1 and 2 pounds. I figured a blessing like that was worth eating.
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So I brought it home, and while the rest of the family was away at the library, I prepared it for cooking at a later date, cleaning up my mess as I went along including depositing the fish head in the trash.
It never once dawned on me that my children, from big to little, would want to see a headless fish, let alone a fish head!
But I should have known better. In retrospect, it was just plain silly of me not to have kept it until they got home. And to remedy the situation, I dutifully walked out to the trash can and brought the fish head back inside for everyone to look at as well as poke and prod.
We’ve always encouraged such exploration of God’s kingdom and creation. The Bible says in Romans 1:20 that we can know Him through His creation, and one of the better ways to teach children about a loving Father in heaven is to help them understand and appreciate this huge world where we live.
My children routinely come home with all kinds of bugs, spiders, turtles and snakes, snippets of fur and feathers, snail shells, bark and rocks. Each leads to great discussions.
While many would find the sight of a fish head distasteful, my children wanted to see if it had teeth and eyelids as well as to take a close look at its gills. They saw in this remnant God’s hand, and they appreciated the fact that now it was a source of food for our family.
These moments are priceless but they don’t have to be few and far between, and it doesn’t matter if you homeschool or send your children to school. Giving children a bit of freedom and an appreciation of what’s around them is a blessing to them as well as a lot of fun.
Next time I fish, should I be as blessed to come home with dinner, I won’t make the same mistake. I’ll be sure they’re around to watch. Heck, if I do this right, I won’t even have to clean them anymore.
I know soon enough the question won’t be, “Can I see it?” It’ll be, “Can I clean it?”
To which I’ll answer, “Absolutely!”