Fish Food?

Did you know that the whale shark is the biggest fish in the ocean today?  Weighing 40 tons, a whale shark is as heavy as a fully loaded eighteen-wheeler truck. 

Are they big enough to swallow a person?  Yes, they are. I don’t know about the whale sharks, but there are documented stories about individuals who spent time in the mouth of a humpback whale and lived to tell the tale. These stories add credibility to Jonah’s encounter with a big fish. We know the story, but have you ever thought about it from the perspective of the big fish?

But this “food” didn’t behave like the mouthfuls of plankton he usually vacuumed up. For three days, this big fish endured something that kept bobbing around, refusing to act like other food.  He was beginning to wish he’d never swallowed the whopper meal.

On the third day, he’d had enough, rose to the surface, and let the tickle in his throat become an aggressive regurgitation of undigested food.

Out went Jonah, covered in big fish slime and probably vowing never to eat fish again!

Of course, we get several lessons from Jonah.  He took the first boat and went exactly in the opposite direction to the direction God had instructed him.  And he knew it.  Then, a storm threatened the ship and crew. Jonah knew it was God’s way of throwing his bad decision in his face.  So he jumped overboard, thinking he would drown.

But God wasn’t through with Jonah.  The Bible says, “the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah.” Jonah 1:17

God sent a big fish to rescue Jonah, but the fish didn’t know that.  The fish was just doing his fish thing, looking for food.  When he opened his mouth, Jonah was swept in with the other fish.  In some ways, the fish became Jonah’s time-out to think about his decisions.  The fish put up with Jonah as long as he could, and then he heaved and sent Jonah on his way.  Good riddance!

The fish had one assignment:  get Jonah.  The fish didn’t make a plan, set a calendar, research fishing boats, or spend any other time on this God-project.   He was just there at the right time, not because of what he knew but because of what God knew.

Encounters that God orchestrates wait in our lives.  We don’t plan them, but if we are open to God’s nudges, we recognize them. 

We’re God’s big fish for some Jonahs in our world.  We won’t recognize them until we take them into our circle, have a 5-minute neighborly conversation, or refuse to treat an “inconvenience” as an interruption. 

Jonah was not food for the big fish.  The big fish was Jonah’s message from God.

Where might your “Big Fish” moment wait?  On your daily walk or run?  Behind a person in the Starbucks