Once upon a time there was a fish named “Freddy,” who swam happily in a tiny brook. As Freddy grew, he was healthier and stronger every day. But one day he became discontented. He felt so restricted. He could only swim upstream to the waterfall and downstream to the shallow rapids.
His life was so dull, a dead end with no options.
But Freddy often had seen, through a rather cloudy vision, another life up on the land. A rabbit hopped by; he wondered what it was like to hop. A raccoon came to wash in the water; he wondered what it would be like to climb a tree. And a robin came to bathe at the edges of his pool; he wondered what it would be like to fly.
The problem was the water! The water was restricting him, but not the rabbit or the raccoon or the robin. And the more he thought, the more frustrated he became. Until finally he resolved to free himself from the water and all of its limitations.
And so with every ounce of fish energy he could muster, Freddy swam around and around the pool, and then in a rush, directly from one side to the other, in one grand splash, landed on the shore.
All he could do was flop, but flop he did! He felt the soil, the grass, the air, and saw the sky. “Free at last!” he thought. “It will just take a while to catch my breath. Then I’ll really start living.”
But as Freddy flopped around, trying first to hop on his tail fins and fly with his gill fins, he realized that it would take longer to learn these things than he first thought.
He was distracted by the sand in his gills, and the grass cutting his eyes, and the rocks bruising his side. He felt the sun and air drying out his scales. “But at least I am free,” he gasped. And died.
* * * * * * * *
You and I were created and placed in the pure, clear water of God’s love and revelation. But we have jumped up on the bank, thinking we would be free of His pesky commands and restrictions. When we’ve had enough flopping and gasping, we realize we weren’t made to live anywhere but in the water of God’s gracious Word. His commands are not burdens, but blessings. 1 John 5:1-5
I run in the path of your commands,
for you have set my heart free.
Psalm 119:32