The Light Comes

Last night I was laying down, battling insomnia, and watching the fish tank from my bed. We have a beautiful fish tank. It's a 55 gallon saltwater tank, and everything in it is alive. The sand, the rock, the coral, the zoas, the candy cane mushrooms, the sponges, the...well, the everything. My husband does a great job maintaining it, it always sparkles.

                                   

The light on top of the tank simulates the sun over the ocean. With a flip of a switch, it changes to simulate moon light on the ocean for night time. Last night it had gotten left on and I was struck by how dramatic the change was.

(This photo was taken several months ago in the beginning stages of tank setup.)

Initially, I was staring at the bubbles from the filter, thinking about how they sparkled in the "moon light", and how relaxing it was. Then I started noticing other things.
There are four fish in this tank. (I will show photos of three, the "beauty coral angel" fish is a little camera shy but you can kind of see her in the bottom left corner of the first photo.)

This is a "Sailfined Tank". Her fins expand to get huge when she's startled.

This is a "Caramel Clown Fish". I named her Java.

In the middle of this rock is a "Lawnmower Blenny". He is aware of you when you are looking in the tank and he is one of the rare fish who will look back at you.

Anemone 

Anemone 

So, I was watching the tank, and moved from the bubbles over to the left hand side. I noticed that Java was swimming back and forth in almost a jerking motion, and never left the 4 inch radius that she was swimming in. I couldn't figure out why....Why wasn't she making the most of her space? Then I saw the shadow of another fish drift by and I jumped a foot in my bed.

All the sudden the tank wasn't so pretty in the moonlight.  It was dark, and it was scary. There were things lurking around that "weren't there before". Of course this is absurd. I know what is in the tank. I put much of it in there myself, with my own two hands. But as I watched the outline of a particularly large kenya tree sway in the currant, it looked sinister. And I realized, that the clown fish had no way of knowing if the tank was safe at night, in the dark. She had no way of knowing if there was a lurking predator or something that will hurt her. She just had to hang on til morning, until the light came back on.

Then it got deep folks. I couldn't help where my mind went. How many people do you know that are in the dark, just hanging on, swimming in their tiny corner, waiting for the light?  Probably more then you think. Can you be the one to encourage them? To hand them a flashlight?

Because I'm here to promise you, the light comes. It does. The light comes.

#TeamJesus

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