Butch, the Beta

"This is why I tell you: Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: they don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't He do much more for you--you of little faith? - Matthew 6:25-30 HCSB

I like fish. I like dogs better, but I like fish. This can be demonstrated by the three goldfish at home who are named Spot, Fido and Rex. I have a new Beta in my office whose name is Butch.
My old Beta (whose name was Kali, Hindu god of death, destruction and chaos) died and metaphorically speaking, left big shoes for Butch to fill. I do a lot of counseling and have found that setting the Beta bowl down close to the kids helps to keep them quiet.

Betas are great pets because they eat so little and require so little care. In the wild, they live in individual puddles for months on end, waiting for food to drop into their tiny territory. They live most of their lives on pause, and when food or rain arrives, they have to suddenly spring to life and get everything done in a few moments or days.

Because Betas have this lifestyle wired into their puny brains, Butch exhibits behavior that demonstrates a level of rudeness that is simply uncalled for. I have provided him with a beautiful bowl with glass beads in the bottom and I feed him on a regular basis. Regardless, every time I drop his food into his bowl, he leaps for it as though it’s the last food he’ll ever have. As he snatches the food, I swear I can hear him snarl. He gulps the food down so fast I guarantee he doesn’t even taste it! He doesn’t trust me to feed him again tomorrow.

This is understandable in a tiny fish with the brain the size of a pea. It’s ridiculous when humans portray the same lack of faith. We snatch and grab, worry, connive and manipulate. We gulp life down so fast we don’t have time to truly enjoy it. We need to believe that God will take care of us. He will give us our daily bread.[1] Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.[2] As they say in Yiddish, “Deigeh nisht! “- Don't worry!

[1] Matthew 6:11
[2] Matthew 6:34