A Big Fish in a Little Pond

Just outside our door, on our way up the stairs to the Temple parking lot we pass by a water garden. It's a pretty spot. There are plants and waterfalls and several little ponds. In the one larger pond lives this goldfish (well, mostly gold, but all fish). His name is Gary Goldfish. (Or if needs be, we can change it to Gertrude Goldfish, but who knows and how could we tell? I doubt even he knows.) He spends his whole time swimming back and forth in this meager world. He sometimes slips under the rocks, sometimes rests on the bottom, mostly leisurely gliding back and forth, hardly moving. But it's his world, it's all he knows, and he seems sufficiently content.

He has no friends. He's alone. But he doesn't know that. There are neighbors in the otherponds, small, frisky guys. Poor Gary is alone. He doesn't know about them. Probably he doesn't know about anywhere beyond his small, mossy pond. He seems to know when you approach, so sometimes he comes up and sticks his nose out of the water. Could be he's smelling, or it may be he actually can see you.

Gary's probably 15 inches long. Seems pretty big for the size of his pond. Who knows what he eats? Maybe the gardner feeds him, but there are plenty of insects and worms around, and it doesn't look like he's missed too many lunches.

Wonder how old Gary is. How long has he been there? What does he think about? Everybody likes him, but he has no concept of affection, I suppose. Jesus loves him.