Fishy People

Faith Forum

My nephew just bought his first car, a sweet little Toyota truck. I am very proud of him. He is a very conscientious, oldest child, a hard worker, who never complains when people ask him for help. As a young driver, he will not give his mother too much headache, I think.
I noticed that the previous owners had adhered a metallic fish to the tailgate. The fish appeared to be your usual fish, simple and, well, fish like, proclaiming the driver a Christian. Then, I realized that it was really a rack of bones. Is that the anti-Christ fish? Or maybe the Nietzsche fish---God is dead. Interesting.
What is this with the fish? The simple fish says, I am a Christian. You have the Darwin fish—which, my best guess, says I am not a Christian, I am a Darwinist. Then there is the Big Jesus fish eating the Darwin fish. There’s a thought. I have also seen a big fish with shark fins. Not sure what that is…There is also the dead Darwin fish. I really like the alien fish. It seems to say, “ Lighten up everyone. “ If there are aliens, maybe they have little fish on the back of their hovercraft. Now there is the dead fish. And where did all this fish stuff begin?
Hundreds of years ago, when Christianity was brand new, the ichthus , which means fish in Greek, was a secret sign. Scrawled furtively in the dust at the feet of two strangers, or scratched into the stone of a passageway, the symbol told others, that here was a Christian, or a place of Christian worship. In an age when being a Christian was a death sentence, the secret sign was powerful. To be Christian in those days, meant you had accepted the faith of Christ with all your heart and were not afraid of dying for Christ. It was a time of stout hearts in the Christian world.
What does the ichthus mean today? I hope it means the same thing. I hope that those who carry the sign on their cars, or business cards, or storefronts, truly are Christian, not just in their talk but in their walk. I wonder how stouthearted are we? If the Nietzsche fish, and the Darwin fish and the Shark fish turned and swam into our midst would we flee like minnows?