What has six legs, a black body resembling an inch long ant, bright red fuzz and a big stinger?
I recently asked myself the same question when my nine-year-old said there was one on our back patio. We all rushed to the glass door to take a look at what he saw. This kid is always seeing something out there. A couple of weeks ago it was he who first saw the four-foot black snake as it slithered through our back yard.
It looked to be the largest ant I had ever seen. We the brave, ventured out to take a closer look. This ant-ish bug was over an inch long, furiously trying to make it’s way off our patio, but not having any luck. My fifteen-year-old ran in the house to get his phone so he could snap a picture.
My nine-year-old rushed into the house to get a box in which to catch it… cause that’s what nine-year-old boys do. Frogs, lizards, caterpillars, turtles, stranded birds, and baby rabbits. At one time or another we’ve caught at least one of those. We carefully caught the bug, sealed it in the see through box and, yes, brought it inside.
After a few minutes I decided to see just what we had caught, so I did what anyone else would have done in my position.
I Googled it.
It took only a moment to discover what we had brought into our house. I love the Internet. The bug we caught is called a Cow Killer. Immediately I questioned the wisdom in catching it and bringing it inside.
As we read on, we found out it was not an ant at all. It was a wingless female wasp whose sting packs such a punch that it’s affectionately called a cow killer. I don’t think it can actually kill a cow, but I didn’t want to find out. I grabbed the box and immediately took it back outside, opened it and threw it into the woods. No, I didn’t kill it. In it’s way, it was beautiful, so I hated to squash it.
That seems to be the way with things that are not good for us.
Sometimes they are beautiful to the eye, but they pack a terrible punch if we get too close. We talk ourselves into thinking they won’t hurt us if we are careful, when all the while we should be running the other way.
I love to read mystery novels, but I have to be careful. Some of the best writers published today tell some very well written, but gruesome tales. Is that really what I want bouncing around in my head? I caution my kids about the music they listen to. I know, it has a great beat and maybe even a cool guitar part, but are the lyrics what they want soaking into their hearts and brains? For the most part I am proud of their choices, but every now and again we have to talk about it.
When I was little, my grandmother once asked me what I thought the devil looked like.
She said she wanted me to know, just in case I ever ran into him, so I could run the other way. I told her I knew exactly what he looks like. I said he was a big, red, ugly guy with a pointy tail and horns, and he carried a pitchfork. She laughed and then told me I was wrong. I looked at her a bit cockeyed cause I was pretty sure I had that one right.
She told me that Satan actually could be very beautiful. That he could use beautiful things to lure me away from God, and that I needed to be careful and watch closely for him. That anything standing in the way of God and me was quite definitely Satan or a tool he was using to lure me from God. I told her I didn’t think that was very fair.
Why do the things that are so bad for us taste so good, feel so good, sound so good?
It’s not fair, but that’s just the way of sin. If sin and the lure of temptation were easy to avoid, then well wouldn’t that be just peachy? So many times though, what we just know would be great for us, is exactly the worst thing. That’s when the dying to self comes in. We set aside our own wants and desires, and choose to want what God would have for us instead. It may seem like a kiss from your old Aunt Gladys on the front-end, but in the end-end, you’ll be able to see it was really much more.
And the great thing about things that come from God? There’s no punch. No sting. No regret.