Fish Friday
by Verena Johnson
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When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple (Jonah 2:7).
As today is a Friday, I think it’s very appropriate to have a ‘fish’ story. I have some Catholic friends who still have fish every Friday.
I remember helping my brother-in-law clean and fillet 60 plus garfish in our kitchen one day. We had quite a production line going. By the end of it all, everything stunk of fish. Me, my clothes, the kitchen, in fact, the whole house! Even after cleaning everything up, opening all the windows and washing clothes, there was still a vaguely fishy smell in the house for days afterwards.
Imagine what it was like for Jonah inside that fish. The smell alone would have been phenomenal and overpowering. I wonder how long it took for the stink on him to go after he finished up back on dry land again in a pile of fish vomit. Maybe the Ninevites were constantly looking for the fish stall that had to be close by as he preached.
Jonah had been so busy running away from God and what he had been asked to do that he thought drowning was preferable. Until he actually was drowning. As his life was ebbing away, he finally remembered God and turned to him, ‘I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you’.
Revelation 5:8 describes our prayers as incense, ‘They were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people’.
So, inside the dark, foul, reeking stomach of that fish, there arose the sweet-smelling incense of Jonah’s heartfelt prayer as he thanked God for saving him, and he promised to make good on his vow. There was a beautiful aroma of praise and the heady perfume of surrender and obedience.
When your life stinks, or you’re in the middle of ‘fishy’ circumstances or dark places, offer up the sweet incense of your prayers to the God who has saved you and will save you. The same God who saved Jonah. The really surprising thing is that the aroma of your prayers also changes the atmosphere in you as well as around you.
Dear God who saves, thank you for saving me and for continuing to save me amid all that happens in my life. Help me to always turn to you and offer you the sweet incense of my prayers and the aroma of my praise regardless of circumstances. Amen.
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