What makes one Koi more valuable than another? I have wondered this for a while...ever since I got my first Koi for my little 100-gallon pond 6 years ago. She was a beautiful yellow, with long flowing fins. I thought she was the prettiest thing I had ever seen...fish wise that is. I was told because she was a Butterfly Koi, she had no value. Huh? Why? She is beautiful, isn't she? Oh well, I still loved her.
I have added many Koi to my pond in the recent years, thinking that I needed to find one of value. I stopped buying those butterfly koi, since the standard Koi are the valuable ones. I own and have owned some beauties. Some were eaten by Herons, but that is another story.
Last October I rescued two Koi from an elaborate pond on an estate that was being forclosed on. They were big and beautiful and I thought for sure they were valuable. Even the guy who helped us rescue them said they were valuable. Cool! Free Koi and they were valuable!!!! I love these fish. They are so pristine and majestic as they flow through the water. They have brought me much joy.
Today I took the kids to a pond store that specializes in Koi. We had never been there, but according to their website they have a fish worth $13,000! Holy Cow! They claimed to have several between the value of $3,000 to $10,000. I thought that these are the people to give me the heads up on my fish. Their fish were beautiful! SO beautiful! I was amazed at them and they let my kids hand feed them and pet them. Some even swam onto a shelf on the edge of the pond to be petted. Very cool!
So I told the lady about my Koi and asked her what their value might be. My smalled peach colored male...."He is nothing," she said with a Spanish accent! What? OK...what about the big, beautiful white female? "She is nothing...probably born in the pond she came from...no good. She is not like mine." OK, there was an over exaggeration if I ever heard one! Is this where the term "pond scum" came from, because I think that is what she was calling my Koi?! Hhhmmmm....I saw ones just like mine in their ponds. I also know that ALL Koi carry value, at least a few hundred dollars. Apparently, it is all about the pedigree. Hers came straight from Japan. Mine came from Woodstock, though they weren't born in the pond they came from. She was a little proud of her Koi, I guess much like an owner at a dog show thinks their dog is better than the one I got from the pound. Oh well! But here is where she has the value of my fish wrong:
When God gave me those fish, He had a plan for them. I was due to give a teaching in January for a Women's League, Inc event and I didn't have any idea what I was teaching on. The week before I rescued my two Koi from the elaborate estate, I came across three goldfish at another foreclosed home who had been abandoned in their pond when the owners moved out. Here were two sets of fish, one set from a dinky, dirty pond and another set from an elaborate pond. 25 cent fish verses $500 fish. The fact was both sets were abandoned, both sets desperately needed to be rescued...both sets needed a Savior, just like us!
As Christians, God calls us to seek out the lost. It doesn't matter what our pedigree is, we are all orphans or "pond scum," and we are in need of a rescue. Christ died to bring us into his royal family, to clothe us in royal garments, to rewrite our stories. Now that we are saved and in that royal family, we can direct the other orphans of the world to the most incredible family tree they will ever be part of, the one that made the cross.
I'll take my "pond scum" Koi any day, after all, they are just like me! SAVED!!!!!!
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for His possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises
of the One who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light."
1 Peter 2:9
If the Son has set you free, you are free INDEED!
PS The $13,000 fish is the one in the left hand corner swimming toward Kelsey in this pic! Hmmm, REALLY?
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