A Dignified Balance

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?
Job 12:7-9

"Recently I discovered some very interesting things about a little sea creature that rates rather low on the Biblical scale. The unclean shrimp has a most marvelous manner of changing clothes six or eight times a year through a process called molting. Apparently a new suit begins to grow underneath the old skin. By scraping around on the rocks, the shrimp begins to shred and loosen the older outer layer which soon sloughs off completely, revealing the classy new covering underneath.

At the time of each molting, another fascinating phenomenon occurs. In response to some built-in primitive instinct every shrimp deliberately places a grain of sand in a special place in its head. At every molting cycle the little rock is discarded along with the old skin, and a new grain of sand is put carefully in place.

Because of the unique function of those rocks, they have been named “status stones” or stones of standing. They are absolutely necessary for the survival of these hardy marine animals. Without them the shrimp would be constantly confused and disoriented. In the wake of surging tides and currents they are tumbled over and over and upside down. It is only by feeling the slight tug of gravity on the rock in their head that they can recognize whether they are upside down or right side up."

In His great love and wisdom, God provided this mechanism to enable the lowly shrimp to keep a dignified balance amid the turbulent elements of its habitat. It occurs to me that there is a type here. How blessed we are to have Christ-the Stone of Israel- to be the provider of a sense of balance and well-being in our turbulent world. And how important to continually keep Him uppermost in our minds.