While I was fond of Gobies as a child, I have recently just learned this amazing fun fact about them. It’s copy and paste verbatim from some aquarium specialist website, reefescape.net.
“The Pistol Shrimp can form a symbiotic bond with several different types of Goby including the Watchman and the Yasha. The shrimp is a great digger, and uses his large claw much like a bulldozer… but he is nearly blind.
Poor eye sight can be a problem in the wild, to dig holes he must venture out into the open to “dump” each load of sand and gravel, making him vulnerable to large fish and other predators. This is where the Goby fish comes in! The goby will sit at the entrance of the cave keeping an eye out for predators, while the shrimp keeps in physical contact using one of his tentacles. When he feels the fish rush back into the burrow, he knows it isn’t safe outside.”
Isn’t this fun fact awesome? I mean I was pretty much the predator when I went fishing for Gobies (real pic here). I caught these to feed my cat on some occasions (I know, poor little blind shrimp right?) but that’s beside the point. If some people believe we are just animals, well then, there’s nothing wrong with going fishing. I know this particular major religion that claims other creatures are sentient beings, the same one which promulgates a person can possibly come back in the next life as a dung beetle. I have not yet heard of people dying and coming back from turning into some kind of animal, like a cat, fish or whatever. I mean it’s headscratching how people find this concept more believable than spending eternity in two fixed destinations where people who’ve had NDEs testify to have actually gone there. Those who went to hell make it their life’s mission to tell people not to go there. I suppose the inconvenient truth of an “eternal barbecue” as Shmuley Boteach puts it, is the reason why people gravitate to Buddhism and find returning as a creature that feeds on dung more comforting. To be honest, that’s just as hellish. Sorry for digressing here. I can’t help myself.
Back to the Goby and the shrimp… It’s amazing how these two sea creatures work together and help each other out, the other one’s strength compensates for the other one’s weakness. I’m not saying this type of relationship does not exist in Christian circles but usually, the culture we find ourselves living in pushes a message that is countercultural to Scripture where humility and asking someone for help is deemed as a weakness and incompetence, and when someone does step in to correct someone out of genuine concern, it’s automatically considered as being judgmental. Christians are supposed to look out for each other especially at this time where the spiritual danger is presented in Christian lingo but are rather doctrines of demons.
“As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
1 Corinthians 12:20-26
Even the fish and the shrimp knows how to perfectly work together. Why can’t we, real sentient beings created in God’s image do the same?
Before I forget, Have a great weekend! Is it just me or are the days getting much shorter than usual?
