The least of these....

The verse from Matthew 25:40 came to mind today. The verse says "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' The verse really touches my heart today, but maybe not for the reasons you would think.

Ya see, with four (soon to be five) kids in our house, there is always that need for the family pet. We have had our share of the furry, adorable little dogs, a guinea pig, gold fish, and even a parakeet. For his birthday this year, Tanner asked for a hamster. We obliged, even though I really am not fond of anything that closely resembles a rat. But anyway, Bugsie became a member of our family. Tanner loved his hamster!!! He took really good care of her. Although he had one problem, closing her cage securely. You see where this story is going.... That's right, the cage was left open a few weeks ago, and Bugsie went missing.

We spent hours looking for her. We left out food, hoping it would encourage her to come out. After a week, we feared the worst. Tanner was heartbroken. We finally encouraged him to get another hamster. A week or so ago, Sam joined our family. Tanner likes Sam, but he would often comment about how much he missed Bugsie.

Now the story gets really interesting. In the middle of the night, Taylor came running into our bedroom. She had found Bugsie (ALIVE). Tay had dropped some crackers in the kitchenette in our basement. In the night, she heard something scratching and chewing. It was Bugsie - having a snack. She had lost a lot of weight in the past three weeks on her adventure and she seemed really happy to be found.

I don't know if I have ever seen Tanner so excited. He had tears in his eyes when he saw her.

What touches my heart the most is to see how God cared for even this little hamster. We had prayed when Bugsie first went missing that God would protect her and help us to find her. This is a great testimony for my kids to see how loving our God is, even to the least of these, like Bugsie the hamster.

By the way, Terry told me not to get too sappy with this story. He said he did not want to be know as the "crazy hamster family". Hope this was o.k. dear.

Till later...