Slugs

Yes, I'll have to admit that God created slugs too.  There must be a reason but honestly, just like mosquitoes, I can't think of one.

My zinnias are being chewed up by something and so I was on the warpath the other day.  First, I sprinkled salt around the bottom of the pot that was getting the worst of it.  Then it rained and there went the salt.  Then I went to the store and bought slug bait and sprinkled it all about, including around some hostas that usually look like lace by the end of summer.

And then my curiosity aroused at how many slugs we actually have, I poured some old beer into two containers and left them outside for the night.

In the morning as my husband left for the bank or an errand somewhere, he mentioned that there were no slugs in the bowls of beer.  Hmmmm.   When I went outside about 30 minutes later, there were no slugs, and there was no beer. 

So now on top of something eating the zinnias, we have an alcoholic raccoon out there presumably sleeping it off.  I hope it made him feel awful!!

As my one son always says, you can't do things in the usual way at this house because we are out in the country.  Very true.  While we do have neighbors, you can really only see one house from ours.  And there are 20 acres of land around us, home to all kinds of critters some of which I don't really want to know anything about.

There is no taming it.  There is only holding it back, keeping it at bay. 

At the old house where we lived, a stubborn bird kept trying to make a nest on top of one of those porch lights.  Thing is, it had a big pokey thing sticking out of the top.  How comfortable would that be?  Well, she dragged mud and twigs over to the spot and made a big mess of it, and not only that, she was getting a little crazy when we went out the front door.  So we had to rip it out. 

And she came back again, and then she came back again.  I hope she didn't "deliver" the eggs on the ground somewhere, but her location just wasn't working out for anyone.

We can learn a lot about ourselves by observing nature.  Animals can be just as stubborn as we are.  In the Bible, it talks about "stiff-necked people."  Aren't we stiff-necked sometimes?   We won't bend, give ourselves over to God's providence.  We won't trust.  We try to do it on our own.  And especially, we won't admit when we are wrong.

Today, let us bend to our God, give him our ear, and pray that we can learn something special today.