In the last issue we learned of the beautiful but deadly character of sea anemones. But there are some kinds of marine life that get along very nicely with them and are not harmed at all.
One of these is the small, pretty clown fish that is immune to the anemone’s poison and lives right within its tentacles, well protected from its enemies. Not only that, but it gets its own food by snatching parts of the anemone’s meals right from its mouth!
Another is the anemone shrimp in the waters off Florida. It doesn’t look like the shrimps that appear on our dinner plates, but is transparent with delicate white lines on its back and colored dots over most of its body. Like the clown fish, it also makes its home right in the tentacles of the larger anemones, but has entirely different reasons for doing so. Protected from attack by its enemies and immune to the anemone’s poison, it attracts passing fish by waving its long white antennae at them. When a fish spots this it moves up close (but out of reach of the anemone). The shrimp then leaps on the fish, picking parasites off its body, providing a tasty meal for itself while relieving the fish of the pests. Some of the fish open their gills wide and the shrimp enters to clean them out, too, going from one side of the fish to the other.
Its work finished, the shrimp returns to the shelter of the anemone and waits for its next customer, while the one it has served swims away, no doubt feeling much better than when it arrived. Many of the large fish serviced this way would quickly gobble up the little shrimp if found anywhere else, but here at its home base among the anemone tentacles it is protected. This is one more example of the Creator’s arranging two different creatures to help each other.
One that is even more amazing is the tiny damsel fish, which is always in danger of being devoured by larger fish. When pursued it heads swiftly to a nearby anemone, dives through its mouth and on into its stomach where it is certainly safe from its pursuer. But how does it avoid being poisoned by the tentacles or killed by the digestive juices of the anemone’s stomach? We don’t know! The wise Creator has made it that way.
These and many other unusual circumstances are examples of the wonders of the Creator, of whom it’ is said, “Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters.” Psalms 77:1919Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. (Psalm 77:19). As wonderful as these physical provisions for these little creatures are, they do not compare with the eternal safety He has made for those who have accepted Him as their own Lord and Saviour. If your name is written in His Book of Life, that eternal safety is yours.
ML-10/20/1985