“Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; Thou hast made... the seas, and all that is therein, and Thou preservest them all.” Nehemiah 9:6.
The study of fish is very interesting, and if space allowed, we could consider thousands of them, but we’ll have to limit ourselves to just a few. One, the file fish, feeds on eelgrass which grows straight up from the ocean bottom. When the file fish is frightened it stands on its head among these grasses, waving with the current and is perfectly hidden.
Another salt-water fish, the porcupine, pumps itself up like a volleyball with dangerous-looking spikes (which actually only look sharp) all over its body, scaring off its enemy. A large fish of the Nile river, the birchir, is an odd one, with extra large scales and a big, single tail fanning out wider than its body. The strangest thing about it is its dorsal fins — twelve of them covering its entire back, making it look like an underwater sailboat.
The archer, a little fish of the East Indies, catches insects by firing well-aimed gobs of water at them, causing them to drop down and get devoured. Another, the angler, of both European and American waters, hides in deep, rocky places, putting out a fleshy “wand” on which a piece of its flesh looks like a good bite of food to others. When something comes to investigate, the angler grabs it in its big mouth and that’s the end of that!
Grunions, each year from March through July, in the third or fourth night of a full moon only, swim up on sandy California beaches when tides are highest, scoop a hole in the sand and lay hundreds of eggs, then wriggle back through the sand to the water. No such high waves come again until the eggs are ready to hatch. When they do come, the soaked eggs pop open, and tiny, new grunions are carried out to sea to start their lives and repeat what their parents have done before them. Who do you think arranged this schedule?
The well-named toadfish is one of the ugliest fish with a large, thick head, teeth sticking out from its wide mouth, and vicious-looking, extra-large fins running the whole length of its back as well as under its stomach, plus other shield-like fins sticking out of its neck. One look at it is enough to frighten anyone.
Flying fish, when pursued, leap great distances through the air, as much as six feet above the surface and sometimes land on boat decks. These fish make nests in seaweed, and their eggs, looking like parts of these plants, are quite safe from predators.
But space has run out. Not one of these, nor any one of the millions of others, is forgotten by its Creator, as the above verse tells us and of whom the Bible also says: “Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters.” Psalms 77:19.
Wherever we look, we always see some wonder of God’s creation.
ML-09/07/1986