FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM?!
A few days ago, I went to the pet shop to buy another fighting fish. The last one I had “committed suicide” by jumping out of the tank. Actually, the previous fish and a few more before that one also “committed suicide” in similar fashion. Sigh!
This new fighting fish which I had just bought recently had also committed suicide. Sigh! Sigh! Sigh! In fact, this happened less than 24 hours after it “moved” into my house. I bought it in the evening, and early morning the next day, I found it on the floor, like an ikan bilis…
And… this set me thinking…
Fighting fishes in the pet shop mostly “lived” in small fruit jam bottles. The bottles half filled with water (and nothing else) are arranged in rows on shelves. Small pieces of card are placed in between the bottles so that the fishes will not see each other. Otherwise, they will become agitated and will go into “fighting mode” thinking another fish has encroached into its territory.
The round tank I have in my house to keep my fighting fish would be like heaven, compared to the miserable fruit jam bottles on the shelves in the pet shop. There is a pump to circulate the water… The water cascade through a series of beautiful cups, creating a vibrant environment… I have some plants growing in an inter-twinning manner around the cups… And food! My fighting fish gets to eat gourmet life swimming larvae… not dried food granules!
Why? Why? Why? Why did all my fighting fishes make so much effort to jump out of the tank to horrible deaths?!
Did the fighting fishes think that life outside the tank would be better than life inside the tank? Were they all pining to return to the fruit jam bottles back in the pet shop?
Or maybe the fighting fishes were looking for freedom?! Not happy with the constraints of the “four walls” of my round tank?! Not contented with the provisions I have made for them?! Did they not know that they would actually be committing suicide if they jump out of my tank?!
Hmmm… Very often, we so like these fighting fishes… when we choose to reject to live under the protection and provision of God… thinking that the freedom outside would be worth fighting for… even dying for…
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