Clean the Blushing Fish

Job 36:22
“Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?”

Many types of animals help each other – an activity called “altruism” – even though some of these animals would normally eat each other. Different kinds of animals that help each other pose a serious problem for those who deny an all wise Creator. Evolution has lots of reasons why natural enemies would not cooperate to help each other. But consider the example of the yellow tailed goat fish.

The yellow tailed goat fish is a mostly white fish that swims in small schools. They often cruise around reefs where the yellow French angelfish live. The angel fish hide from the goat fish who might eat them. However, the goat fish are often bothered by parasites that lodge in their scales and gills. When this happens, the goat fish swim to the reef in which the angelfish live and blush a bright rust red color.

When this happens, the angelfish knows that the goat fish has not come for lunch but to be cleaned. So the angelfish swims out and cleans the goat fish of his uncomfortable and unhealthy parasites! When the goat fish is clean, he stops blushing and swims off to leave the angelfish in peace.

Is it possible that our wise Creator has provided for the needs of His creatures in a way that could provide these unexplained mysteries for those who want to explain things without Him? We think so. We think this is one of the ways in which His glory, power and wisdom are made evident to those who don’t want to admit an intelligent Creator.

Prayer:
Lord, I thank You that You leave those who are proud in the imaginations of their own hearts unsatisfied so that they may continue to seek You, while satisfying those who look only to You. Help me always to seek You first in all things. Amen.

Notes:
Photo: French angelfish. Courtesy of Albert Kok. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.