“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
Genesis 1:26
Louie loved to swim. In fact, he
would just die if he did anything else, literally. Louie was a fish, and he
lived in a bowl on my kitchen counter. When Louie was given to my daughter for
her birthday, he shared half of his bowl with a friend. Thinking it was rude to
separate the comrades by the clear divider, we removed it. The next morning
Louie’s friend floated at the top of the tank … dead. In that moment we understood the purpose of the divider.
Louie was a territorial betta. After ignoring him for some time because of his
murderous act, we forgave the finger-sized beast.
Each morning I would greet him
with happy greetings, and he would flap his fins in response to my voice. The
closer I leaned toward his bowl and the more cheerful my voice sounded, the
bigger he flapped and the deeper he dove.
Our cats also enjoyed Louie. They
would sit on the counter and watch him swim and then stand over his bowl and
take long drinks. Louie learned to trust one of our cats during his lapping.
Our other feline, however, would dip her paw into the glass fishpond, bring it
back to her mouth, and lick the fishy water off of it. Louie would panic every
time, trying to hide under the rocks at the bottom of the bowl, or he would
float frozen in place until the furry creature left.
Not only was Louie a scaly
friend, he also became a landmark in our kitchen. Conversations sounded like
this:
“Mom, where is the metal
spatula?”
“It is in the drawer under the
fish.”
Or…
“I can’t find the sunscreen,
Mom.”
“Look in the cabinet directly over
the fish.”
Beside the fish, under the fish,
across from the fish—Louie’s residence was the starting point for finding
household items, not to mention it was a great way to teach prepositions. Now
that Louie has passed, no one can find anything in the kitchen, and our cats
stay dehydrated. We miss our fishy friend.
(Taken from Live, Love, Laugh and Laundry?)
Challenge: Does your family take pleasure in small things? Take time today
to observe the smallest miracle in your home because no miracle is really a
small thing. Enjoy God’s creatures.
