It took mankind many centuries to discover electricity and many more years to put it to use. Even so, elaborate wiring systems and power plants are required before a factory or home can use it, and then it’s not always dependable.
In contrast, consider another wonder in God’s creation. He gave certain fish throughout the world the ability to make and use their own electricity. The three-inch-long flashlight fish, living deep in the Caribbean Sea, has a light as strong as a small flashlight. Its electricity comes from pouches below its eyes and can be turned on and off at will. A large fish pursuing it in dark waters gives up when the flashlight fish swims swiftly in one direction all lit up, then turns the light off and swims in another direction.
There are some fish that have rows of lights along both sides of their bodies. In the dark they look like toy ocean liners with lights shining through the windows. They can turn them on and off as they please. Others, such as the deep-sea viper fish and dragonfish, carry torches on the end of fleshy rods which they can turn in any direction, and there are others which have bright red taillights. The gulper eel, almost five feet long, is one of these. Still others have headlights sending out two beams with reflectors behind them, like a little car finding its way in the dark waters.
But not all use their electricity for lights. For some it is a weapon. Certain species of catfish use an electric shocking system to steal food from larger fish as well as to keep them away. Touching the stomach of a large fish with its fin is something like sticking your finger in an electric outlet, but don’t try this. The larger fish is stunned or knocked out, and the catfish escapes or helps itself to the food the larger one had intended to eat.
Electric rays, torpedoes and numbfish can all give severe shocks numerous times a minute. The electric ray’s body gets this power from about 450 electric tubes, insulated inside its body so there are no short circuits. When it really turns on the power, it can kill small creatures and can knock a man down. The marbled electric rays in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Indian oceans are among this group.
The six- to eight-foot electric eel of the Amazon River and other waters of Central and South America is the most powerful of all and can disable large animals with as much as 500 volts of electricity.
These amazing creatures remind us of the works of God and the wonders of His creation, as our opening verse states—beyond our comprehension. But more amazing yet is His wonderful love in giving His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on Calvary’s cross. Is He your Saviour?
ML-01/04/2009