A Little Minnow!

On Boxing Day we (my wife, myself and our two girls) left for a camping trip to Port Lincoln National Park. We spent five nights camped at September beach, which is a stone’s throw from the Cape Donington lighthouse (seen in the distance on the right hand side of the picture below).



Although the beach faces out to the Southern Ocean (next stop is Antarctica), it is surprisingly calm – a perfect beach for young kids!

We spent our days swimming, bush walking, reading, fishing and sightseeing. A lovely relaxing end to another busy year!

One afternoon while swimming with the kids I spent some time watching the small schools of minnows dart around in the shallow water a few feet from the shoreline – at times in less than a foot of water! In the distance the dark blue waters of the Southern Ocean sprawled out as far as the eye could see; filled with unsearchable underwater canyons, caves, and yet undiscovered marine life.

It dawned on me that I was a lot like these minnows! In the school of God I am a minnow, swimming in the shallows of knowledge and understanding; hugging the shoreline with but a little faith as I swim in the gentle waters of grace, timid and afraid the slightest splash – unable to comprehend the height, and breadth and depth of God’s eternal power and divine nature – Just as a minnow cannot comprehend the height, and breadth and depth of the Southern Ocean and all it contains.

Lord, you know me. You know how oftentimes I am weak and trembling. How slow I am to learn from you! How I often put my foot in it like Peter. Full of bravado one minute and denying you by the fireside the next. Please turn and look at me. Speak to me the words that I need to hear, that my faith might increase, and I might decrease. Grow me up Lord. I am but a child. An infant in understanding! Still so selfish and self centered! Lord, help me not to think more highly of myself than I ought, but to consider others more; to love as you loved me! Amen.