In the last issue we learned of the beautiful but deadly nature of sea anemones. However, there are some marine creatures that get along very nicely with them and are not harmed.
One of these is the small, pretty clown fish that is immune to the anemone’s poison and lives right within its tentacles, well protected from its enemies. It also seizes its own food by snatching parts of the anemone’s meals right from its mouth!
Another is the anemone shrimp in the waters off Florida. It doesn’t look like the shrimp that we eat: It is transparent with delicate white lines on its back and colored dots over most of its body. Like the clown fish, it lives right in the tentacles of the larger anemones but for different reasons. Protected from attack by its enemies and immune to the anemone’s poison, it attracts passing fish by waving its long, white antennae at them. When a fish spots this, it moves up closer, but out of reach of the anemone. The shrimp then hops on the fish and eats parasites off its body. This also relieves the fish of the pests. Some of the fish open their gills wide so the shrimp can clean them out too, going from one side of the fish to the other.
Its work finished, the shrimp returns to the shelter of the anemone and waits for its next customer. Meanwhile, the cleaned fish swims away, probably feeling much better than when it arrived. Many of the larger fish cleaned this way would quickly gobble up the little shrimp if found anywhere else, but here where it lives among the anemone tentacles it is protected. This is one more example of the Creator’s designing two different creatures to help each other. This is called symbiosis.
One that is even more amazing is the tiny damsel fish, which is always in danger of being devoured by larger fish. When pursued, it swims quickly to a nearby anemone, dives through its mouth and on into its stomach where it is certainly safe from its pursuer. But how does it avoid being poisoned by the tentacles or killed by the digestive juices of the anemone’s stomach? We don’t know! The wise Creator has designed it that way.
These and many other unusual circumstances are examples of the wonders of our Creator. The psalmist exclaimed, “Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters” (Psalm 77:1919Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. (Psalm 77:19)). As wonderful as these provisions are for these little creatures, they do not compare with the eternal safety He has made for those who have accepted Him as their own Lord and Saviour. If your name is written in His Book of Life, that eternal safety is yours.
ML-05/25/2014