The Little Fish

Yesterday, my husband and I went with a friend to a nice aquarium. We saw sharks as big as we are, some little ones too. We saw many, many different kinds of fish, eels, and jellyfish. It was great!

We went by a part of the aquarium that is shaped like a vertical glass cylinder. A school of fish swirled round and round inside. They were beautiful and fast, and it looked like they were all going in the same direction. Our friend pointed to one fish going in the opposite direction.

I admire that little fish!

Every other fish was doing what they do, going round and round, all in the same direction. But this little guy dared to be different, swimming against the current. Now he was the same kind of fish as all the rest, but he was different as well. He wasn’t carried along by the crowd.

The Bible says Christians are in the world but not of the world. We are humans, live with other humans, but we’re not exactly like other humans, because the Holy Spirit lives within us.

Jesus prayed this prayer for believers before His crucifixion. Jesus understood very well that Christians would need to swim against the world system: And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world (John 17:13-18).

I pray that God would give me the strength to be just like that little silver fish I saw yesterday, brave enough to defy the “school of fish” that is the world and to follow the Lord instead—even if I’m the only one. I want to live by His truth, be sanctified through God’s Word, be in the world but not of the world. Amen!