Swim, Jonah! Swim!

So, who hasn’t heard about Jonah and the fish? If you haven’t, then you simply MUST  read about it! Old Testament – Book of Jonah.

I was reading his profile (Jonah’s) and giggled a bit at the idea of this man who was called by God, running off and purchasing a ticket for a boat to another city.  To get away from God! AS IF! Even the Old Testament peeps should have known better. But oh, people ran. News flash!!!! You. Can’t. Hide. From. God.

A lot of people cast aside this profound miracle of Jonah and the great fish as fiction or a fairy tale in the Bible. That would be missing the point entirely. God chose Jonah and he DEFINITELY had a purpose for this guy. I must say, reading that he was swallowed by a “great fish” is well, somewhat hard to swallow. 😛

I believe the Bible to be true. Every God-breathed word of it. I know some tend to elaborate when telling stories (my husband SOARS at this – top notch “elaborator” award goes to him) however, I can’t imagine that God was okay with people elaborating or adding fairy tales to HIS Word. How would you determine the truth from the non-truth?

Back to Jonah, he was swallowed by a great fish. Great, as in, this fish was awesome to put up with this guy for three days and three nights. Some might think, wow! that must have been, well, unimaginable and just awful. I see it like this: God sent that great fish to SAVE Jonah. Sure, it wasn’t pleasant and my mind cannot understand how that all went down, but we do know that it happened because the Bible says it did.

Some of the strangest, non-believable occurrences come by way of God’s saving grace. He just reaches down and snatches us up when we get ourselves into a hot mess. In the case of Jonah, he was given the privilege of sharing one of the most non-believable stories in the Bible. That’s one of my top “things to ask God about when I get to heaven” questions. Right up there next to “what kind of dog do you have, God?”

It’s all about perspective.

But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.        – Jonah 1:17