Plenty of Fish in the Sea

There really are "plenty of fish in the sea". At least trillions. We know of at least 25,000 different species with more being discovered all the time.
When I think about it, it boggles my mind.
I have sat at the ocean shore looking out at the vastness of it and was made peaceful inside by the motion of the waves, always coming. Now there is something you can count on!  If someone had not told me what was inside of those waves, underneath the surface for miles upon miles, I would never know. I would not venture out very far without becoming overwhelmed and heading back to the safety of the shore. But I do know at least some of what is out there, because people have ventured out seemingly unafraid to explore and they have shared their knowledge with us all. But as they venture out they just keep discovering more and more, seemingly with no end in sight. Will there come a day when we know we have discovered it all?
While standing on the beach looking out at the ocean, not in my wildest dreams could I have conjured up in my imagination anything close to what is actually out there. Could I have even come up with a simple fish? I don't know, it may have ended up looking like a dog or a bird, something I know already. And that is what is so terribly amazing to me. God came up with all of His creatures with a blank slate. Us included. How can I for one moment feel I have any importance at all? In the vastness of all the creatures and plants and microscopic things  here on just one little planet, what am I??? Does it matter? The ONLY thing that tells me I do matter is that my Creator Himself made Himself become one of us and lived and died to show me (and all people) that we matter- A LOT. (John 3:16) And, He imagined the rest of creation for us to tend to. There is endless fascination here, yet we create things to keep us busy. How odd.

The good thing about ticks?

What could be good about a tick?
My husband helped me discover this incredible perspective. I am quite sure I would have never recognized it without his help.

I woke up bleary eyed, went to the bathroom to wet down my head and wake up. As I was pushing the water around I felt something attached to the back of my neck. I could not see it but I instinctively knew what it was. A tick!!! Now, intellectually I know that you are supposed to be careful when removing ticks so their head does not get stuck in your skin. However, panic prevailed and I scratched it off immediately. It just had to be off that instant, you understand! Ugh- Yuck- Nasty!! There it was in the bathtub- thankfully with its head still attached to itself. The remainder of my day was spent feeling nonexistent ticks all over my body. It did not help at all that I continued to find dead ones around the house. They must be hitching a ride on the dogs and then dying because of their Frontline treatments. (Why is there no Frontline for humans, anyways?)
Except for the one that survived and found its way to feed on my neck while I slept.
As I was going  through my day itching at myself and complaining about the AWFUL ticks, my husband, in his non-plussed way of dealing with such things as insects, said to me, "Well, the good thing about ticks is that you can see them and they just keep getting bigger until you can't miss them."
Okay. Really?
"Yeah, that's a great thing about ticks," I thought and said sarcastically.
But the more I thought about it, I had to admit the truth in his statement, or at least recognize the perspective.
Imagine, I thought, if ticks just buried themselves, unseen under your skin and fed on you until there was next to nothing left and you never knew it until it was far too late. You knew it was there, but you could never find it! Yep THAT would be worse. There actually are unseen parasites, so I suppose there is an argument that in the bug world there are creepier things.
Deep breath...
Okay, so as I think about it I begin to relax a little bit. I stop seeing ticks everywhere and I am able to proceed with caution through my daily routine. As I relaxed and got on with things, I was able to make some connections with this strange train of thought that ticks could be good. I was thinking: it's too bad the "ticks" in our lives are not as easily recognized and as heartily removed as the real thing. The attitudes we have, and the things we do or possess that we allow to suck our life blood are not always as easily spotted, or indeed frantically gotten rid of. Sometimes those "ticks" have to become extremely engorged before we recognize them. In fact, the removal may even become painful because they have become so much a part of us and how we do things. Are you picturing with me the person walking around with an enormous tick attached to their neck, oblivious? Perhaps God gave us ticks for illustrative purposes. Could it be that we can learn something useful from the tick? While I ruminate on this new found perspective I wonder if I will come to appreciate the little insects. Maybe even see one and say thank you?
Probably not.