The Fish Lifesaver Servant

Told by Dr. Ibrahim Barsoum - Washington DC

One day, I was walking along the beach early in the morning, contemplating the beauty of nature that God has made. As I looked to the sand, I noticed a tiny little fish lying on its side, which was about to die. It had somehow been separated from the ocean water and was on the verge of suffocating.

As I passed it by, I thought to myself: “I can either keep walking and ignore the little fish and leave it to die - and no one would care; or I can stop and help it to get back into the water and live.” I decided to stop and help the little fish back into the water. Reaching down with my hand, I gave it a few pushes until it reached the water. Almost instantly, life came back to the little fish and it started moving further into the water. A wave came to the shore with other little fish swimming in it, and took my little friend into the ocean along with them.

As I continued walking, I felt God revealing to me a lesson from this seemingly trivial fish incident. He was showing me the role of a true servant. The suffocating fish symbolizes a lost soul. God often places these “suffocating fish” along our paths. Our role is quite simple: to push these dying little fish back into the living water, which resembles pointing a lost soul to Christ. As a fish cannot live outside the water, likewise a soul cannot live away from Christ. Once the fish is in the water – or the soul is in Christ, it can now live and grow. The other little fish that I saw in the wave can represent members of the Church, which embrace lost souls to be partakers with them in the body of Christ.

Jesus is inviting each one of us to be “Lifesavers” for His beloved and precious little fish. These fish are so precious to Him, that He paid for them with His very own blood. The question is, next time He places a “suffocating fish” along your path, will you just keep walking – or will you choose to stop and help the fish back to the Living Water?