A LESSON GIVEN BY FISH
That thou
mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his
voice,
and that thou mayest cleave unto him. Deuteronomy 30:20a
God talks to us even in small things. An example follows:
Every winter we would bring in the goldfish from the horses watering tank and put them in an aquarium. As I was filling the aquarium a small inner voice (thought) said, "your using the wrong water." I looked at the aquarium which was by now half full and recalled reading in one of my fish books that you were not to use soft water when filling an aquarium. But, another thought reminded me that I had occasionally used soft water last year and nothing happened, so I continued to fill with soft water.
That evening before supper we brought the fish in and conditioned them for the aquarium. With supper out of the way and the dishes done I put the fish into their winter home. Everything looked to be O.K.
The next morning the fish seemed to be quite content in their new home and I was very pleased. I again checked on the fish after I got home from Bible study and they still seemed to be doing quite well. Later on that day I looked again and two of the fish were in distress. They were breathing quite rapidly and one was floating in an upside down U position. I knew right then I should not have used soft water. My husband suggested that maybe it was to rapid a change, as the water was quite cold in the stock tank. Thinking that maybe, because the aquarium light had been left on, it may have gotten to warm for them so I shut it off. The thought came to me that I should change the water but since we were ready to go to town to get a few groceries decided to wait until we got back.
When we got back one fish had died and another next to dying. I said a prayer over the dying fish and put the groceries away. I took another peek at the fish, finding the other had also died. The other two fish left still seemed to be doing O.K. but I did notice that the smaller one of the two left, was breathing a little more rapid than normal or so I thought. It was late and I decided that I would just wait until morning and if they got sick I would then change the water.
The next morning I got up to find my favorite fish floating in the upside down U position, breathing very rapidly and the other one dead. I thought for a moment, and then decided I would go out and get some water from the outside hydrant, which was a hard water facet. I knew it would not be the same temperature, but I was going to lose my fish regardless. So I took the chance and took the last living Goldfish out of the aquarium and put him into the cold pail of water I had just gotten. He wiggled a little as I put him in to the pail and then went limp again.
I then made breakfast. Keeping an eye on him, I thought to myself if I had just listen to that quite voice I would still have all my goldfish. Then it dawn on me, that small quite voice was God and he had warned me knowing the consequences. The other voice that told me It would be O.K. was probably some little lazy demon. I grew excited, having felt I had stumbled unto another lesson in hearing Gods voice. I received joy and gave thanks to my God for the lesson I had received although I had lost my fish.
Then I remembered having prayed over the one fish the night before and the question came to my mind "Why didn't God answer my prayer, why did he let my fish die?" Then all of a sudden I knew Satan was accusing my God of letting my fish die. I responded out loud, "God didn't kill my fish you did Satan!" God had warned me and I didn't listen, instead I listened to the whisper of a demon. I had allowed myself to be tricked into obeying the will of Satan. The Lord knew I would lose my fish if I put them into the soft water and once I had done it, there was nothing he could do, because I had taken it out of his hands.
My one living fish was starting to breath a little easier now and I decided to empty the aquarium and refill with water from the outside hydrant. I had gotten breakfast made and my husband off to work but still had all my chores to do before going to work. So, I hurriedly went out to take care of the horses. I feed them their grain and while they were eating I worked on filling the aquarium. Between pail fills I took the horses out to pasture, took care of the cats and my other chores. I finally finished putting 30 gallons of water into the aquarium and had only time to wash up and get ready for work. By now the fish was starting to relax and swim around his pail. God could now do a miracle. The water was still pretty cold in the aquarium, but I did have to get to work, so I put the fish back into the fresh aquarium and left, leaving the fish in Gods healing hand.
That afternoon when I got home from work the gold fish appeared to be back to normal and was hungry. I could only praise God for what I had learned and the miracle he preformed on one small gold fish.