Fish out of their waters
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Psalms 51:2 (ESV)
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Thinking about the fish that we now have in the aquarium in our office, I thought about how they got there.
We had some gold fish and some scavengers that we raised from minnows of which we purchased from a pet store. When we bought them they were approximately one to two inches long.
Over maybe four to five years the fish grew to seven to 10 inches long.
Then one day after cleaning the tank and filters, I did something and I can’t exactly remember what, but the next morning when I entered into the office, the fish were all sleeping upside down.
I knew that fish were smart because they swim around in schools. I had heard that you could even train fish, but I had no idea that fish could hear really good.
Fish are not that smart; actually, they are kinda slow. I say this because I was singing Rock a Bye Baby to them the day that I was cleaning their tank, but the next day is when I found them sleeping upside down.
After that the next set of fish I brought in came from a brackish water canal behind our home.
I was careful not to do the same thing that I had done to kill the other fish, so I didn’t sing. I just put the fish into the water in the aquarium.
These were strong, hardy wild fish so I just knew that they would thrive.
Two maybe three hours later the minnows were stuck to the filtering system screen -dead! I was beginning to wonder if I had a fish growing thumb like I have a green thumb?
After another 23 days I got another fish from my backyard about two inches wide by four inches long; I didn’t immediately put him in the water.
I wondered what transpired with the other fish…?
I wasn’t thinking; I was taking them straight-out of their environment of brackish water and I was putting them directly into chlorinated city water, even though I went through the procedure of putting the proper solutions in the water to make it hospitable for them.
However, I was not allowing them to get comfortable in their new environment with the proper assistance.
So I began to introduce the fish to the water a little bit at a time by adding the mix of chlorinated water to the brackish water.
I mixed a little bit more water with the fish before I put the fish into the aquarium.
The next step was to put them in the chlorinated water; the fish are still living
So I got to thinking about how do we as humans begin our process of changing from sinners to saints-maybe that’s too drastic a comparison.
Then, how do we move into a better relationship with God?
Like those fishes, if placed into a new environment (a walk closer to God) free from uncleanliness (temptations), even so, if we don’t have appropriate processing stages(guidance) we could die(continue to backslide) immediately.
Before we can be changed to live a Christian life we have to sit in situations and in solutions to be cleaned out, which will make us conducive for the One’s own purpose.
That transition point, where we need to be, sometimes we find ourselves in a holding pattern, waiting to be free from sin, where He is still working toward getting us together before we can enter into that other life.
Like the fish taken from the brackish water and put into crystal clear clean chlorinated water, if you are not acclimated to it, it could kill you immediately.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10 (ESV) “Wading in the water is cool getting sprinkle with it is wonderful, however to be totally dunked in it can be a miraculous life changing experience.”
Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
