Among the many varieties of fish in the world, God has created some very interesting ones. For example, did you ever hear of the kissing gourami? When it isn’t busy eating, it will occasionally swim up to another gourami and plant a kiss on its lips. Why do they do this? No one knows for sure except the One who made them, but it is thought to be a form of aggression, not of affection.
An interesting species that is kept alive in an amazing way is the large African lungfish. These fish, which look like eels, because they have very long tails, live in ponds in parts of Africa which dry up during the dry season. Because of this, the Lord has given them the ability to live through something called “estivation.” This is like hibernating, but estivation takes place in the summer instead of during winter. In order to keep alive, they bury themselves in the mud when the water has almost completely evaporated, burrowing down 10-18 inches into the mud. Then the fish spews mucus all around itself, and as the mud dries, the mucus forms a cocoon that traps in moisture. A hard tube of this mucus forms to allow it to breathe.
During this time, it lives off the muscle tissues in its long tail until rains come to fill the pond again. Then it breaks out of the cocoon and lives the usual fish’s way of life. Also, if there is a lack of food, it can go up to three and a half years without food by going into a similar state as estivation.
Another unusual feature about this lungfish is that even when it is in water, it has to breathe air from outside the surface of the water every half hour or so. It has both gills, for extracting air from the water, and a lung, which is why it needs air, or it will drown.
As we see in our opening verse, God created fish to live in water. Every creature on earth needs water in one form or another, but only certain things can live in water. In one way, Christians are meant to live in water. God’s Word, the Bible, is pictured in the Bible as water, and so is the Holy Spirit. Like the lungfish during dry season, we live in a world that doesn’t enjoy the water God gives specially to us. Just like God provided for the lungfish so it can survive during the dry season, He has given us what we need to survive in a world that is far from God. We need to read the Bible every day to get the water we need and to memorize it so we can think about it all day long. And God has so kindly given us His Holy Spirit to live in us, to guide us safely through this world, and to teach us about the Lord Jesus. Did you read your Bible this morning?
Did You Know?
African lungfish can go up to three and a half years without food.
Messages of God’s Love 3/31/2024