Are We Truly Connected? … & “Of All Symbols to Identify Themselves with, Why a Fish?” One day, when I was a small child, we were driving along; I noticed that the vehicle in front of ours had a fish symbol on its rear, on the boot/trunk door. I asked Mum what the fish symbol was for; and she told me it was a way for Christians to identify each other. I may not remember much about what else we said then about it, but I remember wondering, “Of all symbols to identify themselves with, why a fish?” I remembered a song we used to sing: ‘I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men; I will make you fishers of men, if you follow Me. If you follow Me, if you follow Me... I will make you fishers of men, if you follow Me.’ (Matthew 4:19 — And He said unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.) “Mmmh,” I thought back then, “Fishers of men. Maybe that’s why they use the symbol of a fish.” Fast forward quite a number of years... I’d left Primary School and High School and was in Tertiary learning. That’s when I learned the answer to my question, “Of all symbols to identify themselves with, why a fish?” The fish symbol has been used to identify and connect Christians for generations. ICHTHUS (read ‘ikh-thoos’) is an acronym that can almost spell the Greek word for ‘fish’— ichthys. ICHTHUS stands for the Greek initials for ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour’ or ‘Jesus Christ Gods Son Saviour’. The Greek spelling for ichthus is ΙΧΘΥΣ — These are the first letters of the Greek words Iēsous (Iota), Christos (Chi), Theou (Theta), γιός or υιός (Upsilon), and Sōtēr (Sigma). This symbol was used primarily amongst Christians of the early church years (1st and 2nd century A.D.) The symbol is said to have been introduced from Alexandria, Egypt; which at the time, was a very heavily populated seaport. It was first used by the people as a symbol of Jesus Christ. The symbol was later used as a means of identifying or acknowledging a fellow believer in Christ without the need for any verbal communication being exchanged. Why was this necessary? Early Christians were persecuted for their beliefs, but wanted to be able to talk about them with others, they used the fish as a recognition sign of their faith. One would draw an arc in the dirt, another would draw another arc, the two together would form a fish (as shown in an illustration below). During the reign of Emperor Nero (54 A.D.- 68 A.D.), and throughout the reign of subsequent evil emperors of the Roman Empire, Christians were commonly persecuted, tortured, and put to death because of their faith in Christ Jesus. In order to prevent this unnecessary capture and persecution, Christians would often draw an ichthus in the dirt, mud, sand, or on the walls of caves to let another Christian know that he/she too was a fellow believer of Christ and that it was safe to talk about their faith without the fear of being turned in. Today, Christians all throughout the world have brought back to life this most interesting and historic symbol. Christians today proudly show off the symbol that their spiritual ancestors once boldly and courageously showed to fellow believers centuries ago. Christians nowadays connect in many other ways, as well. One day, one of my siblings came to my room; and after looking at the house-phone that had been there, she remarked, The phone is off. Then after a pause, Why havent you charged it? I thought it was charging, I informed her. The charger is connected to the phone. She lifted the cord of the charger and we saw that the charger indeed plugged to the phone, but was not plugged into the power source. She gave me one of those looks, as if to say, Surely Dawn! Such lack of connection may happen in our lives, if we are not careful: We may seem connected, but not truly be connected to God and also to the people that we should. For instance, our families, immediate and extended; including Church family, friends and all. Are we truly connected, as God would have it? May we always connect to God (Hebrews 10:22-23), who gives us eternal life (John 3:16)! May we always be productive branches in Jesus, who is the Vine (John 15:1-8). May we always connect to others (Hebrews 10:24-25) in God’s way, as we grow together! Let us keep on bearing the fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8; John 15:5,8); equipped and enabled by the LORD. — Dawn Gikandi
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 04:25:45 +0000
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