“Good morning, Toaster Gecko!”

“Good morning, Fridge Gecko!”

“How are you doing today, Window Gecko?”

Every morning I come into the kitchen and greet my gecko pals. Our house in Cambodia is full of geckos, maybe over 100 of them! I can’t count them, because I can’t see them all at once. Some of you may say, “Cool!” and some of you might say, “Ew!” For me, the geckos are my welcome friends because they eat lots of BUGS! At night when our lights are on, they feast on the bugs that are attracted to the lights. They make a chirping sound which gives them their Cambodian name, ching chok.

Sometimes you can see the eggs inside of a mama gecko’s belly if she’s stuck to the other side of a window. The eggs hatch into tiny gecko babies, only an inch long. Geckos can let go of their tails if a predator tries to eat them – the tail will wriggle and jump for minutes after detaching from the gecko, distracting the predator and giving him time to run away. Then the gecko grows its tail back!

Our gecko friends also watch everything we do with their big eyes. They see me cook noodles and might even gobble up the scraps that fall under the stove. They watch us eat juicy mangoes, and once we leave, they stick out their cute tongues to lick up the sticky drips we missed.

Recently, our gecko friends were watching from high up on the wall when we had Bible studies with our friend Hoining. They were there when she said, “Yes, I want to follow Jesus forever and never go back.” They saw the big smiles on our faces, and maybe they smiled too! They saw us bow our heads to pray.

The geckos downstairs run around the pillars while I look after sick people that come to visit me for medicine and care. When I visit my neighbors or take care of them when they’re sick, the neighbor’s geckos flick their tails from side to side and offer a “Ching, ching, ching!”

I’m glad God made my gecko friends. I see His loving care in every one of his little creatures. What is one way you can see that God cares about you?

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