The Ho'olaule'a Gecko Story

When Bill and I got married in the early 1980’s , his parents paid for us to have a honeymoon on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. I was young and adventurous, but I had never been anywhere. The time I had spend outside my home state could be counted in hours, and never more than one state away. Like Lucy in the movie of “While You Were Sleeping”, I had saved up and bought a passport, and carried it with me, but there were no stamps in it.

I still remember the feeling of stepping onto that 747 jet… the one I had observed and admired and wished I could travel on ever since it first came out when I was a child. I remember the feeling of being served my first real airline meal, and best of all I remember arriving in Honolulu.

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We stepped out and it was dark, but the air was warm and humid. We rolled the windows down in our taxi to breath in the air and scents. It began to rain. It was all so magical.

2 days later we were on Kauai. I remember as we walked up to the condo, little geckos went running to the left and right, parting the way for us all the way up to our door.

That night, as we went to bed, we saw a gecko climbing the wall. I knew nothing about gecko’s, so it was a little scary and little romantic as it sang us to sleep with it’s unique little chirping. Every night was the same, our chirping gecko came out and sang us to sleep and by the end of the week, I was totally in love with this little lizard (though thankful it stayed up high on the wall).

We didn’t return to Hawaii until our 25th anniversary. By then, we had the internet and google so I had researched and knew all about the geckos. They are prevalent, safe little creatures who eat a lot of the bugs we humans would rather not have around. As our visits to Hawaii grew longer and more frequent, I was always happy to see a gecko in our rental, and I had many interactions with the less timid day geckos.

The bright colored day geckos (featured in this painting) aren’t the gecko’s (mo’o) that chirp prettily at night. Those are the common house geckos, like we saw on Kauai. These Gold Dust Day Gecko’s are everywhere and most of us living here in Hawaii happily cohabitate with them, and just embrace their presence. I mean, who can resist those big blue eyes?

They love fruit, and I had several who fought over territory in my kitchen. But I didn’t have ants!!! When they were around long enough, I actually begin to see unique personalities. And, yes, I will admit to sometimes naming them.

I never NEVER thought I would be a “lizard” person, but these little mo’o bring me a lot of joy. Their colors are inspiring, their antics entertaining and their usefulness (eating cockroaches and ants) are endearing!

If I can find joy in such a small thing as a mo’o, imagine how much joy God gets from you and me! In the Bible we are told that God “…REJOICES over you with singing”!

Can you imagine that? It makes me smile… and appreciate these little guys for reminding me of this great big truth.

You are worthy of being sung over with joy! Carry that truth with you today!! And remind anyone else around you who needs to hear it too.