A Fishy Story?

In Isaiah 55, there is an invitation to seek the Lord:

6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord.

God has a higher purpose for all of our lives, and when interruptions come or calamities transpire, we do well to stop in the midst of the madness or shortly thereafter and think that perhaps God is doing something in us - He is working all things for our good, the Bible teaches, and He will give us wisdom and peace as we seek Him in the midst of our trials.  We might not get the complete understanding, but we can trust that our lives are held by a loving Father who desires to make us more like Christ each day.

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God desires to work His will in and through our lives, and He is perfecting an inner work by the
power of the Holy Spirit. We have the promise in Philippians 1:
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.

On Labor Day in Philadelphia, Lisa Lobree was walking to meet her CoreFitness class near the Art Museum there. She heard a "rustling" in the trees, followed by, according to what she told Philly.com..."Suddenly I was slammed by something." She added, "I was like, 'What?!' I was freaking out."

The "something" was - wait for it - a catfish! The theory is that a bird was carrying the fish in its mouth and dropped it. Bystanders reported seeing a bird flying away, perhaps a vulture or hawk or eagle. The catfish was about 16 inches long, perhaps five pounds.

Lobree said, "It definitely hurt me and I didn't know what happened." She had a cut near her eye and her face started swelling. The co-owner of CoreFitness, Gina Mancuso, related that said she had just started instructing the 9:00 boot camp class when one of Lobree's friends came running over. Mancuso said that the friend told her that Lisa had been hit by a fish. She said, "I handed her my phone. Then I made a couple jokes to the rest of the class."  Lisa

Lisa said that the fish probably fell at least 50 feet and struck branches on its way down.

The story from Philly.com goes on:

That afternoon, Lobree developed a 101-degree fever, which she said is rare for her. It might have been a coincidence, but she was worried about a possible infection. A pediatrician neighbor said that was unlikely.

Lobree called her doctor as a precaution and got the answering service. They thought it was a prank call - a fish story, you might say.

"I told them a fish fell out of the sky," Lobree said. "She asked if it was from an airplane."

Later, her doctor called and prescribed antibiotics, but the fever went away on its own. It might have just been from the trauma, the doctor suggested.

I came across another "falling fish" story.  This one was from Alaska last summer, when, according to The Blaze, the Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife reported receiving reports of arctic lamprey mysteriously falling from the sky. These eel-like creatures, which are 15 inches long and feed on the blood of other fish, are called "Vampire Fish." The explanation: the agency said, “Gulls are picking them out of the Chena River with their bills and then dropping the squirming critters while in flight,” adding that "many lifelong Alaskans have never seen one of these fascinating fish up close because their body shape and feeding habits make them difficult to catch.”

Fish falling from the sky!  Improbable?  Sure.  An interruption?  Absolutely.

We might not experience something so dramatic, but we all encounter life's interruptions from time-to-time.  I think of an interruption in the life of a prophet named Jonah - he refused to do God's will and speak to the people of Nineveh, so God used a very large fish to swallow him, and during the incident, Jonah realized the error of his ways.  The purpose of God was accomplished during that period of well, "inconvenience."

Sometimes inconveniences occur because of our own mistakes and we suffer the consequences of our bad choices...messes of our own making, sort of speak.  But, God will use those circumstances for His glory, perhaps for a course correction, a teachable moment.  Maybe He just wants us to slow down and listen to Him, and maybe He wants to refine our lives.

And, sometimes interruptions will take place not due to our miscues and miscalculations.  We can acknowledge the hand of God as He orchestrates our lives.  Things may not work out or progress in the way we think they should, but events are going according to plan - His plan.  Isaiah teaches that His ways are higher than our own, and Philippians reminds us that He is doing a good work in us.  He is absolutely faithful, and life's interruptions, perhaps in various forms of adversity, are tools that He will use to perform His purpose.  It probably won't be a fish in the face, but rather than let us "flounder," God will "hook" us and lead us by His Spirit.