The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
January 23, 2000
Vol. 3 no. 4

Everything But...
      Big fish stories today, but in both cases we are the ones being fished! It does not matter whether we are hooked or swallowed, we are being sought after by God.
      It's wonderfully coincidental that Christians identified themselves in the early years with the fish. If the Christian Church had been a team in the NHL - I know, the Israelis don't play hockey - they would have taken the nickname "The Fish."
      When being a Christian was an affiliation which drew suspicion, if not outright hostility and suppression from the Roman authorities, scratching a fish on one's door indicated to Christians that they were welcome there. The word fish in Greek was "ichthus" or ICJUS. The five Greek letters were an acronym standing for: Iesus Christ Son of God, Saviour. Someone clever figured that one out.
      From a human point of view, being a fish is not all that glamorous. The purpose of being for a fish is to be caught - and then to be either eaten or put in a tank to be watched.
      As Christians the purpose to our lives is to be caught by a God who will not let us go. But instead of killing you, God gives you a new life, far different from the one in which you were swimming in the world. As "fishers of people" you and I are charged to "catch" other people so that they too might experience this new life.
      Jonah, the guy swallowed by a fish, is supposed to be just the reverse. Here is someone who tries not to be caught by God and ends up three days in the unbelievable darkness of a big fish's belly. The early Christians knew "three days" equalled Jesus' time in the grave until Easter morning. Jonah came back to life the really hard way. Not that much easier for most of us "fish," but New Life is worth it.