The American couple was ministering to a group of women who had recently become followers of Jesus Christ. They were all raised in another belief system and it is not unusual for women who have started following Jesus to be treated very badly by their husbands. These women are denied the opportunity to go to school so they cannot read. One lady asked for advise on what the Bible says she should do because her life had become very difficult since she has started following Jesus and her husband was beating her because she would no longer attend his place of worship with him.
Another woman stood up and gave her testimony. She told the group that she became a follower of Jesus and her husband got very angry with her when she refused to go to his place of worship with him. He told all his relatives and neighbors that he did not know what to do with his wife.
She told her husband that she was going to a week long meeting where she could learn more about Jesus. This only made him more angry. He wanted to know who would clean his house and cook his food if she went away. She reassured him that he would do just fine and it would only be five days.
After she left, he told all his neighbors that she would never set foot back in his house again. He locked up all the doors and windows and left. Just to make his decision sure, he went to a river and crossed half way over the bridge. There he threw the key to his locked home out into the river.
When the woman came home she thought of how her husband must have had a difficult week cooking for himself, so she decided to stop and buy food from the marketplace to cook his favorite meal. When she arrived home she found her house locked up tight and her husband was nowhere to be found. She went to her neighbors, but no one would tell her what had happened. She finally asked one of her neighbors to help her cook the food so it would not spoil. They started to clean the fish and as they cut one open a key fell out onto the floor. They could not believe their eyes. They have never seen a key come out of a fish before.
The neighbor told her that it looked like the key to her house and she encouraged her to go try it. It fit! So she opened her house and finished cooking the meal.
When her husband heard that she was in the house he became angry once again. He rushed home and found, to his surprise, that there was no sign of a break-in. He demanded to know how she got into his house. She showed him the key as she told him the story of the key falling out of the stomach of the fish. Then she served him the meal and he ate in silence and went straight to bed.
The next day he asked if he could go to her church with her on Sunday. As they sat in church together he just sat in silence. After the service he asked if he could talk to the pastor alone. She took her husband to meet and talk with the pastor. He told the pastor that this Jesus was a worker of miracles and he asked what he needed to do to become a follower of Jesus like his wife.
It has been a year and a half and they are still attending church together faithfully.
The reason I have removed wording identifying the belief system and specific country is because this is not about a belief system. This story is about the lengths God will go to as He reveals His love for one individual man.
This is not the first time God used a fish to tell people of the love and forgiveness He offers. Jonah was a reluctant prophet.He knew the Lord was a God who desires that all people come into a relationship with Him. Jonah thought judgement and eternal hell was the best option for the people he despised but the Lord prepared a great fish to help Jonah deliver His message of love and forgiveness.
So although I would normally find such a story a bit dubious if it was just being circulated around the internet, I am conveying the story as I heard it from the one who witnessed the testimony from the woman with the key. They have also talked to her pastor who attests to the fact that the husband had a radical instantaneous change to his belief system due to the story.
Jesus is the Key to God's love and He has gone to great lengths to show you His love. I would love to talk with you if you would like to know more about this love that would do what we would think to be impossible. Just send me a message.
