Did you know that Jesus used a fish as a coin purse?

I once asked my daughter this and she thought I was fooling with her. But once I saw the passage, I thought, "Boy, that would be a nifty thing to make!"

When they came to Caper'na-um, the collectors of the half-shekel tax went up to Peter and said, "Does not your teacher pay the tax?"
He said, "Yes." And when he came home, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?"
And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free.
However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself." (Matthew 17:24-27m RSV)

I suppose He could have just pulled a shekel out from behind the tax collector's ear, but that would be weird. ;)   Then this post would be thinking out loud about making an ear-shaped coin purse, and everyone would think it was a van Gogh tribute.

It also would not make nearly as nifty a project. I would want to create something resonant with wildlife biology except with one of those twisty purse latches for a mouth. I recently found out about felting knit projects (as a way to make something cool, rather than as a quick fix for those who aren't that good at knitting) which would seem ideal for the task.  Nice and sturdy, and a way to blend the stitches for speckly fish effects.

I was thinking that I ought to have disclaimed that this blog is from a Catholic who knits rather than about Catholic knitting, but I guess this project disproves it.