The Heavenly Dance

As neice, Caroline, and my two sisters Holly and Amy peered into the shallow water by the dock, we saw dozens of little fish dancing. Each fish circled above an 8 inch ring of pebbles. Every so often, when another fish approached, the whirling der-fish (that's a clever play on the word 'dervish' for those of you in your post golden years) would snap out of his circle and drive away the intruder. Occasionally, a small fish would join the circling fish and the two would swim together. The smaller one would swim sideways at times.

Intrigued, we pulled out our smart phones and discovered that this amazing behavior was common to the nest building longear sunfish. We learned that the male fish built the nest of pebbles by waving his fins and then circled til a female longear approached. The sideways swim was a mating dance. There was also an imposter, a male that would sneak in and pose as a female, but then spread his sperm surreptitiously so that his progeny would sneak into the unsuspecting amorous longear.

The Longear sunfish is endangered, and yet here was this remarkable fish in droves right on the shore of the lake where we are spending wedding week.

Perhaps my favorite fact about the longear sunfish is that the daddy fish builds the nest, protects the eggs, and remains with the very young fish until they have a chance of making it on their own. I thought it was a wonderful symbol of the role my son Matthias is taking on tomorrow, when he vows to spend his life for better or for worse with Karissa. Like the endangered sunfish, I think husbands and daddies who understand how critical their presence, guidance, love, protection, and generous servanthood to their family are in short supply.

I watched the circling longear sunfish til the sun forced me to seek shelter in the shade. This small world of patriarchal devotion comforted me. I thought of the heavenly Patriarch and how He is always circling, always watching for intruders, always guarding His chilldren. The heavenly dance reflected in the waters.

Isaiah 40:11, 22, 26 NIV

He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

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