20191209-长 Fish Growth in a Year! Fishy Reflection or 2019 ending (Chang2 and Zhang3) 长

11 mths passed me by and my fish had grown (长) leaps and bounds and in length (长)!

JAN - DEC 2019!

Above taken in Jan 2019

Above taken in Dec 2019

The new 11 fish had grown 长（Zhang3) to as long as the old 7!

They are now at least 9 inches long 长Chang2)!

When the 11 new fish came, they were less than 5inch long.

I forgot to measure the length of the 7 old fish back then.

But 11 months later, these new 11 grew to as long as the old ones - now 9 inch thereabouts.

I wondered - why did the NEW young ones grow faster? What happened to oldies like Koila, Koile, Koili, Red Head and Lihao, Lily, Litu?

In fact new Zebra, Fed & Red Dot seemed to have overtaken the old ones in size!

Reflections:

Perhaps the old are just too accustomed to the pond environment.  Too contented and so stunted growth.

Whereas the newbies were happily flexing their scales from their little sheltered pond to a bigger new pond and hence it grew in length. FDD too. (Fei Dui Dui)

Interestingly, I just realised that the word“长”in Chinese can mean "long" as well as "grow"

Perhaps this applies to our own little walk with the Lord Jesus.

As we approach the ending of 2019 in another 21 days or 3 weeks' time, we want to spend some time reflecting on how this year had passed us by?

• Have we "grown" to be more like Jesus -coming to such unity in our faith and knowledge of Jesus? Eph 4:13
• Have our walk with Him been closer and sweeter in the grace & knowledge of our saviour Jesus Christ? 2 Pet 3:18
• Have we turned our past disappointments into divine appointments ? Col 4:12 - becoming more matured that we fulfil God's will for us.
• Or have we become 'obese' aka FDD like some of the old fish and become stagnant in our spiritual journey? Stunted growth - Hardened or jaded life? Nightmares striken by the real and not reel horror live action of the prolonged HK drama of mobs and rioting ?

GROWTH - is a process.  It is not an overnight thing. 

Like those new fish - it took them about 11 mths to catch up in length with the older 7 fish.

We invested in lots of fish food - some cheaper ones and others - pretty expensive kinds where they 'guaranteed' the vibrancy of the koi colours!

So just like these fish, in order to grow we need that spiritual food that comes from none other than the WORD of God.

The B.I.B.L.E which many known it as Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth -is the key that guarantees the compass for our life in this journey.

In the world where so many troubles can be seen around of late, we are reminded to stay focus on YHWH - He is the WORD.

The word“长” -also means Forever, Always, Constantly. 

Hence, in order for us to GROW, we must always remember YHWH - He is the One who is Always Forever changes NOT and the Constant who Constantly changes NOT....长..长..长 What a paradox ?! We need to change to grow into more like Him who changes not.

Beautiful song about our Unchanging God.