See the Seahorse
I wait for the Lord to help me. I trust His word. — Psalm 130:5
The seahorse (or Hippocampus, if you want to be scientific!) is a tiny fish that lives in the oceans.
It's called a seahorse because its head looks like the head of — you guessed it — a tiny horse. This unusual creature often swims with another seahorse, and they link their tails to stay together. It also swims "standing up" and tries to blend in with nearby plants so it doesn't get eaten.
Because of its body shape, the seahorse isn't a very good swimmer. So rather than go out hunting for food, seahorses use their tails like anchors, holding on to a piece of sea grass or coral. They then wait for food — plankton and tiny crustaceans — to drift by so they can suck it up with their long snouts.
With its poor swimming and its tendency to stay in one spot, the seahorse isn't going to win any races. But God has given it everything it needs: a way to get food, someone to swim through life with, and something to hold on to. God promises the same to you. The Bible says,
God will use His wonderful riches in Christ Jesus to give you everything you need. — Philippians 4:19
God provides you with food and shelter, Jesus to swim through life with, and the promises of His Word to hold on to. Like the seahorse, you may sometimes have to hold on and wait for God to deliver His promises — but He always will, and at just the perfect time.
Help me, Lord, to wait for Your perfect timing. And while I wait, teach me to live the way You want me to. I will follow You!
Seahorses are one of the few animals for which the male bears the young for the female. A female seahorse lays her eggs — sometimes hundreds of them — in a pouch on the male seahorse's tummy. The pouch is very much like a kangaroo's pouch. The eggs stay in the pouch until they hatch about 45 days later. A baby seahorse is only about the size of a jelly bean and must start finding its own food as soon as it's born.
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A Tool for God
Encourage one another and build each other up.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV
Scientists have long known that some animals use tools to help them get what they need.
But they have only recently discovered the most unusual way one animal "builds" its house — and they found this animal scurrying across the sands of the ocean floor.
The veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) builds its home using coconut shell halves that people have thrown into the ocean. Stacking one on top of the other, it crawls between the two halves — the perfect underwater armor for this soft-bodied octopus. When the octopus needs to travel, it simply stacks the shell halves under its body — much like stacking two bowls. It then "stilt walks" on its eight legs, dragging the shells with it. Scientists have even spotted veined octopuses digging buried coconut shells out of the sand and squirting them with jets of water to clean them before moving in.
God gave some animals the ability to use tools, but did you know that He made you to be a tool? God wants you to be His tool in building up others and leading them to Him. How can you do that? He tells you in His Word:
Go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I have told you. — Matthew 28:19-20
What an amazing thought — that God uses you to build His Kingdom and to help others know Him!
Lord, I want to be a tool in building Your kingdom. Help me live a life that tells the world about You.
The veined octopus is just one of several animals that uses tools. There's a group of bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, that carries sea sponges in their beaks to stir up the ocean sand and uncover their prey. Also, sea otters use stones as hammers to crack open abalone shells to get to the food inside.
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