Perch
The true perch (perca) is the archetype of ten thousand species of the order perciformes, or “perch-like”, dominating the ocean, many freshwater habitats, and accounting for nearly half of all bony fishes. Our native variety, the yellow perch (p. flavescens), has dark vertical stripes laid over rough yellow-green scales and averages 7-10 inches at a weight of around one pound. For their size, they are voracious hunters, using their 800 teeth on insects and smaller fish. In turn, they support the larger ecosystem of walleyes, largemouth bass, and cormorants.
True to their name, from the Greek perke (perch) derived from the Latin forma (shape), perch’s bodies make them fast and efficient swimmers with a fighting spirit. They are a popular sport fishing and flavorful pan-frying species for humans. They swim in like-sized pods and spawn communally with several males contributing to one female’s 10-90k eggs. They mature at 2-4 years and can live up to 11 years in total.
More information available here.
What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?
In Ecclesiastes, the Preacher meditates on his perception of the meaninglessness of life as both the wise and the foolish end in death. He suggests, recognizing this, that the meaning we seek can be found in God’s gifts of the simple pleasures of eating, drinking, and taking delight in one’s daily rhythm of tasks.
So too does the “preacher fish”, a colloquial name for the native perch, proclaim a gospel of fullness in small things. Their wondrously formed bodies speeding through the shallows speak of joy and beauty. They spurn isolation and accompany each other in the routine rhythms of feeding and spawning. They eat what is available without striving for something novel, which helps preserve their lives from the hunters. From a short, small life, they generate delightful abundance for themselves and many others. May we allow these mediations on the perfectly-shaped perch to provide us with one more measure of an advantageous life meandering from flower to flower. They show us God’s gift of beauty, not just practicality.
These little sweat bees could fulfill their purpose of pollination without having a shiny green body, but God wants us to have not just bread but roses too.
Author - The Rev. John Elliott Lein
The Rev. John Elliott Lein is a priest, Creation liturgist, and artist homesteading in the ancestral lands of the Passamaquoddy (the “pollock-spearers”) along Cathance Stream in the Machias River watershed flowing into the Grand Manan Basin of the Gulf of Maine along the Downeast coast.
God of moss and mountains, thank you for the diversity of creatures that praise you by their being. May we likewise show forth your glory with our bodies, hearts, and lives, in the name of your Son Jesus, the firstborn of Creation. Amen.
Prayer by Rev. Rachel Field