Musings: Carrying His House On His Shoulders

As I chanced upon a short video today, I saw something which I never expected to see.

A walking octopus. (Yes, a walking octopus).

And he (or she) was carrying a house! (Well, to be fair, a clam shell). Amazingly, the little sea creature was walking across the ocean bottom on two of its eight legs carrying the clam shell with him. Once he arrived at what he (apparently) considered the proper site for his ad-lib home, the multi-legged sea creature deposited his load, summarily climbed aboard, and proceeded to draw the two halves of the shell around him.

I like to think I’m a well-rounded, learn-ed individual, but I’ve never considered that wild animals owned anything; the way humankind possesses an object. But here, right in front of God and everybody, was a wild underwater creature toting around for what passed as a house.

The exploits of this little “spider of the deep” reminds me of a well-known scripture passage:

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

And why take you thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, “What shall we eat?” or, “What shall we drink?” or, “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?”

(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

(Matthew 6:25-33)

After having watched that little fella tot around its mobile home, I will never think of this scriptural passage the same again.