Secrets of the Anadromus Plan | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Secrets of the Anadromus Plan | Previous Challenge Entry
By LINDA GERMAIN
07/28/22
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES

I didn’t know what it meant either until curiosity knocked on my brain and forced me to consider some mysterious things about a certain fish who works arduously to accomplish what it was born to do.

Anadromus is a Greek word that, more or less, means running upward. My anemic knowledge of the swimming-upstream thing was sadly limited to a few wild animal programs attempting to share amazing facts about the nature of nature.

To the delight of many bears, these tasty fish become stunningly available fast food at certain times of the year in specific places and equate to delicious repasts leaping right into waiting mouths and paws. I like to think Yogi and his impatient line of furry pals call them McSalmons.

That harsh, exhausting salmon journey once a year is to reproduce and then the poor spawn-driven mother can’t swim another inch and keels over and her body eventually adds great nutrients to the waters and becomes food for other fish. (I was thinking maybe she should have planned better or turned around faster.)

Mother Salmon lays her eggs in between tiny rocks to protect the offspring until they can grow and make the return trip to the home from whence they came, and then grow up to do the same thing as Mom.

Amazingly, the children mature in a few years and leap at the chance to make the Olympic work-out trip, against the current, tired but determined to go back to the exact place of their birth. How do they know where that is? Research says they have an incredible sense of smell and also somehow are directed by the earth’s magnetic field. Sounds like God’s original GPS.

I was sure a story about all this striving and pushing and following their ingrained plan to the death would be a good comparison to a directionless human who is floundering here and there with no map or plan. The point is salmon don’t ask why. They just obey.

Maybe that’s the takeaway. They are slaves to that inner voice, if you will, that keeps them in an instinctive cycle of migration from ocean to fresh water, and then the next generation follows. I did read that about 5% of the females make it back to the ocean, at least once, and then regroup, work out, eat healthily, and do it again (probably no more than once though).

If we were dedicated slaves to the often-ignored programmed inner voice of our Lord, most of us could avoid fighting so much to have our way to dash up wrong streams where we can be grabbed by hungry bears or fall over from busy work that we created by ourselves which did little to advance the Kingdom or even keep us happy.

Although I do not like to eat salmon, a perfect source of Omega-3 and so good for us, it would certainly be prudent to embrace a portion of their determination to be brave enough to swim in the other direction when I am nudged to take an obedient stand as a Christian, an influence that might make a world of difference.
_____

1 Peter 4:17
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.