Ah,summer! Full of little surprises. And most of them involve bugs!
This morning a strange insect, looked like a very fat black bumblebee,found its way into my house. I'm not particularly squeamish about bugs, but I prefer not to have them inside. This one seemed to share my preference – the poor thing frantically buzzed from window to window, occasionally slamming it's fat little body against the glass in its efforts to escape.
I felt so sorry for it. I thought I'd try opening a window to let it out, but of course the bug didn't understand that I was trying tohelp it, so every time I approached, it would fly off in another direction. I could have just opened all the windows in the house, I suppose, and eventually the bee-thing would have flown out, but I hadv isions of the house filling with flies and other nasty things that don't mind staying indoors.
After several attempts to set the bug free ended in frustration, I came up with another plan. I grabbed a plastic bowl and finally managed to corner the terrified insect in a bedroom window. I carefully placed the bowl over it, then gently slid a thin piece of cardboard between the bowl and the window pane, trapping the insect in the bowl.
I could hear the thing buzzing desperately around in the bowl as I carried it to the back door. It undoubtedly thought a bad situation had suddenly gotten worse, from being trapped inside a house to being caught inside a tiny, dark bowl by a strange creature with unknown intentions!
When I stepped outside and slipped the cardboard from the bowl, the bug froze for several seconds, not recognizing its freedom. Suddenly, it flew straight up and out, then soared in a wide exultant circle around the backyard before disappearing into the trees. After putting up such a frenzied fight, it finally realized that the scary dark bowl had been its bus ticket outta there!
How much time and stress, for both me and the insect, would have been avoided if I could have just gotten it to trust me!
I wonder how many times I've failed to recognize God's plan to deliver me from a predicament because it's not the flowery, happy method I would prefer? How many times do I try to fight back when God tries to help me because His solution to my problem seems dark and scary to me?
I hope I can learn to trust Him to take care of me like He promised,even if I don't always understand or appreciate His methods.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways My ways, says Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."Isaiah 55:8-9
