The Net Doesn't Discriminate
"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore." — Matthew 13:47-48
We love the parables about rescue. The Shepherd finding the sheep. The Father running to the Prodigal Son. Those stories feel safe.
The Parable of the Net is different. It isn’t about rescue; it is about reality.
The Geometric Chaos
When designing this piece, I wanted to capture the tension of the catch. On the left, you see the "good fish"—gold, aligned, moving in a school. They fit.
But on the right, trapped in the same net, is a cluster of sharp, dark, chaotic geometry. These shapes don't flow. They clash. They represent the "bad fish" in the parable, but visually, they represent rebellion. They are the jagged edges that refuse to be smoothed out.
The Drag
The terrifying thing about this parable is that the net catches everything. It doesn’t filter while it’s in the water. It drags the bottom of the lake and pulls up the gold and the grey, the aligned and the chaotic, the believer and the pretender.
We live in the "time of the dragging." We are all in the net together. The wheat grows with the weeds; the good fish swim with the bad. It is easy to think that because we are swimming, we are safe.
The Shore is Coming
The red line in the center of the design represents the inevitable separation. The parable ends with the fishermen sitting down to sort. The good are kept; the bad are thrown away.
The Gospel isn't just that God is love; it's that God is holy. The net will eventually hit the shore. The sorting will happen. The message of this design is a sober reminder: We are currently in the water, but we are headed for the shore.
Ensure that when you land, you are found to be His.
Wear this reminder that the shore is coming. Shop the Parable of the Net Hoodie.