I can see some of you shaking your heads and saying…that lady really needs to get a life. Another fish story? Well sorry, but besides me they are the only live things in the house and the four of us (three little fishes and me) just have each other.
Although I still consider the fish my daughter’s (she gave them to me),I must acknowledge that after feeding them twice a day and watching them swish back and forth in their little glass home, I am becoming somewhat attached. We are learning to be friends.
Recently I took the greenery out and the decoration rock and thoroughly cleaned the tank. I put new gravel in, the three fish and some fish food and they thrived. I don’t think they really need all that dressing up of the tank.
Sometimes I think we need to simplify our faith. First of all we need a clean tank and some fresh water. (Redemption will do this…just ask Him.)
But like my efforts to pretty up the fish tank, we often dress up our faith with the unessential. Yes, to some it is important to delve into the deeper meaning of things, but most of us are not asked to be prophets or apostles…we are asked to be followers.
I am encouraged with my relationship with my fish and they really enjoy my morning and evening visits to the tank…of course I know they just want food, but there is nothing wrong in being the supplier of nourishment for something else. I did it with my babies and they grew to love me.
I notice my fish can’t handle the large flakes of food that are in the food container so I scrunch it up into bits they can easily grab a hold of. They are not sturgeon, they are goldfish. Similarly God knows what we can handle and will feed us what we need when the time is right. So, today, I feed my fish, soak up some scripture and know that in both, God delights. The Lord is present in the lives of little fishes and in the lives of his much loved children.
Photograph by Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
