“Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is.”
Acts 4:24
Among the many varieties of fish in the world, God has created some very interesting ones. For instance, did you ever hear of the kissing gourami? When it isn’t busy feeding, it will swim up to another gourami, plant a kiss on its lips and move on to kiss another. Why do they do this? No one knows, except the One who made them.
Then there is the brightly colored butterfly fish. It has broad, wing-like fins that enable it to come out of the water, spread its fins like a butterfly and skim over the surface, searching for food.
In parts of South America and Africa, ponds form during the rainy seasons where there had been only dry ground or swampy marsh before. Miraculously, small fish often “suddenly” appear in these waters, swimming around until the ponds evaporate in the hot sun. Then the fish die, but meanwhile they have laid eggs in the muddy bottom. The eggs partially incubate in these muddy nests before the mud dries. When the rains return, these eggs finish incubating and hatch into a new generation of fish. It would seem that the Lord God, the Creator, wants to keep this strange fish as an example of the marvels of His works.
Another interesting species which is preserved in a different way is the large African lungfish. These fish, which actually look more like eels, live in seasonal ponds and bury themselves in the mud when the water has almost completely evaporated. There they form a cocoon to protect themselves during the long hibernation, curling up with their tails over their eyes to protect themselves and preserve moisture.
This fish is able to get oxygen from either air or water; tiny holes in its cocoon admit enough air to keep it alive while hibernating. Of course, its body activities almost stop during this time, and it looks like it is dead. It actually can stay alive for as long as four years this way, living off its fat and muscle tissues until rains come to fill the pond again. Then it breaks out of the cocoon and takes up the usual fish’s way of life. An unusual feature about this lungfish is that even when it is living in water it must occasionally rise to the surface to gulp air.
In some ways this is a picture to us of death and resurrection, which are mentioned so often in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus was on earth He said, “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear [My] voice, and shall come forth” (John 5:28-29). He further explained that those who have faith in Him will come forth to everlasting life with Him in heaven, but those who die in their sins will come forth to judgment and be sent into everlasting darkness. How important it is to obey God’s Word while we are still alive: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
JANUARY 14, 1996
“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
ML-01/14/1996