Really cool fish!

John and I are currently on vacation in Florida. Before you get jealous, you need to know that the high tomorrow is expected to be in the 50’s with lows in the 30’s. But still, there is no snow or ice on the ground, so I’m not complaining. We are having fun with some friends.

On Sunday, we visited a local church. After a time of worship, a man and woman went up on the stage and took turns reading from Psalm 104. Let me be honest here and tell you that I was only vaguely aware of the fact that they were reading a Psalm. I actually had to call the church today to determine which Psalm it was! You see, there was a huge distraction. Showing on the screens found on both sides of the stage was a video with some of the most captivating pictures of God’s creation I’ve ever seen. As I half listened to the reading I found myself looking at the scenes thinking, “I wonder where that beautiful waterfall is? Oh, that mountain is gorgeous.” I knew that I should be listening to the words of the reading, but I just couldn’t concentrate.

At one point, it became quite clear that I was not alone in my distraction. Here’s what happened. The view on the screen was of a bunch of fish. There was this rather large black fish and a school (it would seem) of little silver fish. Suddenly, the big black fish opened her mouth and all the little fish swam right in! This was when I knew I wasn’t the only one distracted because, as they swam into the big black fish’s mouth, the entire audience gasped. Seriously, how stupid would a fish have to be to volunteer to be dinner?

But here’s the cool part! When the pastor came up to preach after the video he explained that the larger fish was actually the mother to all those little silver fish and they swim into her mouth for protection when the big mean fish come along. Isn’t it amazing how God created that form of protection for those baby fish? As soon as the predator was out of the way, the mother opened her mouth and out swam all her babies. Sometimes God’s creation just leaves me breathless! (I was going to say speechless, but who are we kidding?)

By the way, once I found out which Psalm was read in church I looked it up and read it myself. It’s a pretty cool description of God’s incredible creation. You might want to check it out.