Monday's Musing: Don't Lose Your Tail

Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.   -1 Timothy 6:19 (KJV)

My son's re-enactment of the capturing of the lizard using his famous beloved red rubber lizard.
Guardian ceramic hippo is for dramatic effect, I believe.
I mean, I don't think the hippo is supposed to be me!
(maybe I should exercise more?)

If you follow my twitter feed, you might have seen a tweet about a gecko lizard running amuck in my house. I also mentioned him in my most recent Shopping Saturday post. The geckos have been prolific this year and this is the second time we’ve opened a door and had a frightened gecko who was happily sitting on the door jam dash into the house.

The first time it was a more timid gecko who froze by my son’s play shoes. I was able to use the handy bug jar to scoop him up and set him free on the porch. The second gecko was a bit more crafty. And nervous. And…evasive.

He ran into the coat closet and did an excellent job of hiding. Later that night, I saw him just outside the coat closet door, but apparently he saw me from across the room and promptly scampered back under the closet door to his hiding place.

I kept an eye out for him over the next few days, but when he didn’t appear again I assumed that he had found a way back outside. These guys can be fast, and my husband uses the door that is right beside the coat closet to enter and exit to go get the mail. They also can slip through small cracks, and the FedEx man once shoved a thick overnight envelope through the weather stripping under our front door - two totally plausible and potentially happy outcomes for the wayward lizard.

It turns out I was wrong. On my way to bed a couple of nights ago, I went into the kitchen as usual to turn off the radio. The now starving lizard had made his way to the kitchen in hopes of dinner and a drink. I chased him around the kitchen with the bug jar and just to gross me out, he dropped his tail in protest during the chase. Yes, the lizard’s tail fell off. On the floor. A tail. On my kitchen floor.

Now that both myself and the lizard were fully traumatized, I managed to get him into the bug jar. Apparently he didn’t know my plan of giving him water, rest, and a peaceful release into the wild when morning came.  I named him “Stubby”, and placed the bug jar by the back door where it was warm, dark, and cozy.

Sadly, the next morning I found Stubby dead in the jar. My guess is that he was already starving when I found him in the kitchen. (there aren’t many bugs in my house) Chasing him around the kitchen stressed him out, and when he decided to drop his tail he was giving up his temporary fat supply. (Geckos store extra fat in their tails to keep them alive when food is scarce.) I did see him drink some of the water I put in the jar, but I guess that just wasn’t enough.

Just like the geckos we need to store up for when times get tough. By consistently reading God’s word and learning his truths, we can store them in our hearts. That way they will always be there on demand for when a tough situation arises and we will know what to do and have the strength to carry on. Hold tight to those truths and refresh them in your heart often. You never know when you might need them.

Linking up with these glorious blogs!