God's Moving Miracle
by Glenn Sasscer Jr.

I believe we are called to share the "MEAT" of what the Lord is doing in our lives!

Some may think this is trivial, some may think this is MEAT, but I believe I should share it with you as a testimony of how the Lord is still performing miracles in our lives - even little ones...

Some of you may know my family and I have moved - instead of moving in a weekend, we decided the two week approach would work, spreading the misery over 15 days. I have a new appreciation for the Hebrews moving through the desert after leaving Egypt.

Last night was the move for the fish tank. If you never had an aquarium, moving a fish tank is more than packing everything into a box and go... the fish have a bit of a problem with the whole box not holding water thing. In past moves, a 5 gallon bucket seemed to work ok, so we did the same for this move.

Unfortunately, by the time the water, stones, and equipment was removed from the tank, the tank moved, and everything re-installed, we had an angel fish become a floater in the 5 gallon bucket. I know, what is the big deal with an angel fish? What is it, all of $1.50? $2.00, at best. Well, when you have children, everything is a big deal if they have named the fish and "imagine" an actual personality with the fish (go rent Finding Nemo and you will begin to understand).

This was at 1:15am this morning. The kids were in bed, my wife and I bug-eyed tired but trying to get this all done and get to bed.

I moved the angel fish from the 5 gallon bucket to the aquarium to see if anything would happen, but it just sank to the bottom, turned belly-up, and floated to the top. A goner.

After accounting for the other fish, I netted the belly-up, floating angel fish and moved it back to the 5 gallon bucket. My wife and I stared at the floater wondering how we were going to break it to the kids. It would have been ok if the fish would have died on its own, but since I was responsible for the move... I, of course, killed the fish. Dad killed the poor, little, defenseless fish. Dad did it. Dad is a murderer.

My wife - the ever faithful - raises her hand and prays for Jesus to restore the fish. Sounds silly? I mean, Jesus ate fish, multiplied fish, provided fishermen with nets of fish, cooked fish... oh yeah, He also created the fish, had Jonah swallowed and puked out by a fish, provided money by the mouth of a fish... but I do not recall Jesus restoring a fish... it is just a fish. Yet... if the fish are important to the kids, the fish are important to Jesus.

As my wife finished the words, the floater turned into a flapper and I quickly returned it to the aquarium. It swam around, bobbed a little, and after eating... well, it seemed to get its bearings and return to its usual grumpy self.

At 1:15 am in the morning... bug-eyed and tired, not to mention sore... weary and barely believing our eyes, my wife and I witnessed a miracle in a stupid little fish.

Jesus set the universe in motion. Jesus set the stars in the sky and made the planets spin. Jesus told the oceans where to stop and the winds where to blow. Jesus restored a belly-up, floating angel fish.

I challenge anyone else to restore a dead fish. What I am not telling you is there was a second floater we did not pray for in this ordeal... It started floating, and no matter what I did I could not get it to come back to life. I even tried a little fish CPR... I'm not kidding. As an after-thought, we then prayed for this fish... yeah, I know... after witnessing a miracle why didn't we do this first, but let me remind you this was 1:15 am and we were pretty wiped out. The second fish was history.

Why? Why would God restore one fish and not another? For all things work toward His glory! When we turned to Him first, the fish was restored. When we turned to Him last...

I believe we saw Jesus work a miracle in a stupid little fish, then made us realize only He can bring the dead back to life, for only Jesus has conquered death.

Go ahead... next time you see a dead fish, see if you can restore it. (But don't we all have some kind of dead fish needing His attention?)

©2007 Glenn Sasscer Jr.

Glenn lives in NW Ohio with his wife and three children where he feeds his fish and hopes he will not have to move again soon.