Pet What?

I came across this story online the other day and decided it was too stupid and bizarre to be real. I was wrong…

Yes, young people in China have embraced a trend of keeping activated yeast as a low maintenance "static pet". This "pet yeast" is a jar of fermented flour and water that the owner feeds regularly, creating a living, bubbling companion. The trend aligns with a "lazy healing" lifestyle, offering a simple, low-cost way to experience companionship without the demanding responsibilities of traditional pets, and it can be repurposed into steamed buns when the owner no longer wishes to care for it.

What the what? You keep a jar of potential bread or beer starter as a “pet?” The dictionary defines a pet as: “a domestic or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure (emphasis mine, also the emphasis of any reasonably sane person, which may or not include me…).

One “yeast pet owner” said, “No need to walk it, no mess, it’s worry-free and easy to look after!”

“If you don’t want to keep it anymore, just add more flour and turn it into steamed buns to eat; there is no psychological burden,” another yeast ‘parent’ commented.

There it is, the easy, perfect, utterly psychotic way to get along in this screen obsessed impersonal world. You make up a weird, bubbly mass of grossness that you don’t have to nurture, walk, or pay attention to. And once you get bored with it, which you undoubtedly will, you eat it. Trust me, when I get bored with Winston (fat chance) I sure ain’t eating him!

Romans 1:21-23 says, “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. ²³ And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. “

When we don’t acknowledge the true God, our lives look for replacements and substitutes, but nothing works. Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

Quit looking for a substitute for God, you won’t find one that satisfies. Only a personal relationship with Jesus will fill satisfy your needs.

I only hope my sandwich today wasn’t somebody’s pet…