Neon Tetras And Black Skirts

A Revisited Devotional from March 18, 1998.

John 13:34-35 – I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (NRSV)

In the last couple of years, our family has been observing fish, and we have been learning a great deal. It all started a couple of years ago when we gave our (then) seven-year-old a small five-gallon fish aquarium with a couple of fantail goldfish. We had varying success with his goldfish.

My husband has always had a fascination with tropical fish, so for his birthday, we gave him a super-deluxe thirty-gallon fish aquarium. We read up on all the different kinds of fish, but one fish we knew we just had to have was the beautiful Neon Tetra. They are small, but they have a bright orange line going down their back. They really are a beautiful fish, and they travel in schools, so we brought home about half a dozen. Then gradually, we added different varieties with the Neon Tetras. As you can imagine, because we were complete novices, before long, we discovered what the book means when it says that some fish are more aggressive than others. We had introduced a couple of Black Skirt Tetras to our Neon Tetras, and the Black Skirts spent their day running after the Neons and nipping their tails. One thing was for sure: these two do not mix, so guess what? Now we have another thirty-gallon fish aquarium for our more aggressive fish. But even in that tank, we have one Blue Tetra bully that everyone has told us is not supposed to be aggressive, but he is definitely the boss of the tank.

As we sit and watch our fish communities, I can't help but compare them to our church. How often we come across people in our church who seem to be like the Black Skirts, nipping on our tails. Whatever we do, it never seems to be good enough for the Black Skirts. So, what's the answer? I think, sometimes, we end up doing what we did with our fish when we bought another fish aquarium. So often, we see people leaving our church because they get tired of being nipped. But Jesus says, "Love one another." He calls all of us, and we come in many varieties. He calls all of us to come together in love. We have to learn to appreciate the differences in each other and to know that each of us is special and that we are loved.

Prayer: Loving God, we thank You that You have made us different from each other but special in Your sight. Help us to love one another and to be more accepting and loving to all our brothers and sisters in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.