In the Mind of a Fish

Sometimes, people don't want to think of God in that way. They don't want to think that God is that much in control of things and that he would make decisions that would be life critical for animals or people. But, those who wrote about God in the Bible don't seem to have been that concerned with defending God's honor by making his actions line up with what we think is appropriate for a loving God.

In the old Testament, we see that the author of the Psalm thinks that God provides life giving situations to the animals and also death giving situations Some may think that this may be that the author in question simply didn't understand the truth as we do because we have Jesus and his revelation. Some may think that the author was ignorant about things we know about because we have science and research on our side. The idea is that, even though this has been accepted as the truth about God for centuries, now we know better about what really happens, so we know that the author was simply stating his opinion and that his opinion was wrong.

But, in the new Testament, we find Jesus saying the same thing. We think that we are being instructed that we should believe that God will take care of us. And, indeed,  we are. Jesus is telling us that God feeds the sparrows and God will certainly provide for us as well. However, Jesus also said that the food the birds get depends on God giving it to them - just like the psalmist said. It appears that Jesus agrees that God controls the environment which results in some dying and some living. Even though Jesus believes that our life and, subsequently, our death depends on God, he indicates that this power God has over the birds and us is a reason to trust him. This is a difficult thing and it talks about the wonders and mysteries of nature, the wonders of God in nature, and the wonder of trusting someone who holds your life in his hand.